J1-4070 — Final report
1.
Magnetic memory effect in multiferroic K3Fe5F15 and K3Cr2Fe3F15

The fuorides K3Fe5F15 and K3Cr2Fe3F15 are known as multiferroic materials. We reported the detection of a magnetic memory effect in these materials and its dependence on temperature and aging time. We succeeded in writing, reading, and deleting 3­bits of digital information in these systems. These results show that in addition to their already known magneto­electric multiferroic properties, K3Fe5F15 and K3Cr2Fe3F15 also possess a new functionality: they can be used as materials for a thermal memory cell.

COBISS.SI-ID: 26820647
2.
Geometrically frustrated magnetism of spins on icosahedral clusters

By investigating the magnetism of spins on a quasiperiodic lattice, we presented an experimental study of static and dynamic magnetic properties, specifc heat, and magnetic entropy of the Gd3Au13Sn4 quasicrystalline approximant. The magnetic sublattice of Gd3Au13Sn4 is a periodic arrangement of nonoverlapping spin clusters of almost perfect icosahedral symmetry, where gadolinium localized f magnetic moments are distributed on equilateral triangles. We demonstrated that the spin system undergoes at low temperatures a transition to a nonergodic state at the spin freezing temperature Tf =2.8 K. Below this, the ergodicity is broken on the experimental timescale, because the thermally activated correlation times for the spin reorientations become macroscopically long. The magnetic properties of the site­ordered, geometrically frustrated Gd3Au13Sn4 system are discussed in comparison to site­disordered spin glasses that contain both randomness and frustration.

COBISS.SI-ID: 27364391
3.
Spin-glass properties of quasicrystals and complex metallic alloys

Spin­glass properties of magnetic quasicrystals with spins placed on a quasiperiodic lattice, and complex metallic alloys, characterized by giant unit cells, are reviewed. The systems exhibit rich variety of brokenergodicity phenomena that share properties with site­disordered canonical spin glasses and site­ordered geometrically frustrated antiferromagnets. Magnetic frustration provides basis of a novel concept of digital data storage, where a byte of digital information can be stored into the material by pure thermal manipulation, in the absence of electric, magnetic or electromagnetic field.

COBISS.SI-ID: 25725991
4.
Magnetic properties of FeAl2 and Fe2Al5

Searching for a novel magnetic material for thermal storage of digital information, we have investigated iron­containing compounds FeAl2 and Fe2Al5. We found that thermal inscription of digital information is possible at higher temperatures than in the Cu­Mn spin glass.

COBISS.SI-ID: 24856359
5.
Synthesis and magnetic properties of hematite particles in a "nanomedusa" morphology

We present the synthesis, characterization, and magnetic properties of hematite particles in a peculiar “nanomedusa” morphology. The “hairy” particles consist of a spherical-like core of about 100 nm diameter and fibrous exterior composed of thin “legs” of 5 nm diameter grown along one preferential direction. A measured deviation of the ZFC and FC susceptibility below 650 K reveals a non-ergodic state of the system already at room temperature which is a prerequisite for using a material as a TMC at room temperature.

COBISS.SI-ID: 28173095