Experimental study of Hopkinson effect in single domain CoFe2 O4 particles

Nanosize particles of CoFe₂O₄ have been synthesized by the citrate precursor technique. Considerably higher coercive force (1.68 kOe) than that obtained by the conventional technique (1.00 kOe) is associated with the nanostructure of CoFe₂ O₄. These nanosize ferrimagnetic CoFe₂O₄ particles exhibit chainlike clusters indicating strong interparticle interactions and reduced magnetic moment, which is attributed to anisotropy and canted spin structure at the surface of the particle. The magnetization shows a peak just below the Curie temperature T_c during heating in the presence of a small magnetic field (the Hopkinson effect), On the other hand, the magnetization increases monotonically when the system is cooled from T _c. This peak is associated with the single domain behavior of nanocrystalline CoFe₂O₄ particles and explained within the mathematical formalism given by Stoner and Wohlfarth in conjunction with other explanations of Hopkinson effect