The authors proposed objective is to prepare small (less than 10 nm) nanoparticles of well-ordered (chemical order parameter, S, greater than 0.9) intermetallic magnetic materials to demonstrate that the extension of nanotechnology to these types of materials is possible and to generate further research interest in nanoparticles of intermetallic materials in general. The intellectual merit of this proposal would be a significant advancement of nanoscale science by the preparation of well-ordered, small nanoparticles of intermetallic phase materials, specifically both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials, which could be widely used as a basis for further research by others.
The current authors expect that their nanoparticle processing approach will eliminate the known difficulties encountered by others. However, the exploratory nature of the proposed research is fully realized when it is considered that the desired ordering may simply not be thermodynamically favored for the smaller nanoparticles.
The broader impacts of the proposed work are several. The potential of small, well-ordered L10 intermetallic (FePt or CoPt) nanoparticles to benefit the magnetic storage industry has already motivated a significant research field, in spite of the lack of success noted above. A feasibility demonstration of well-ordered small nanoparticles having nearly bulk phase magneto-crystalline anisotropy and the expected high ( 10 T) coercivity would provide a renewed impetus to the field and potentially contribute to the societal benefit of high-density magnetic data storage. Both graduate and undergraduate student participation at the primary academic research site, and more limited student participation at a storage industry research site are expected to have an educational benefit.
