Magnetic relaxations of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles in magnetic fields

Phys Rev Lett. 2002 Feb 11;88(6):067202. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.067202. Epub 2002 Jan 28.

Abstract

We reexamine anomalous magnetic relaxations of ferritin in magnetic fields, the presence of which has been regarded as evidence suggesting the existence of thermally assisted macroscopic quantum tunneling in antiferromagnetic nanoparticles. In the present study, relaxation curves of ferritin are examined using an approach that is free from assumptions regarding distributions of various parameters of polydispersive particles. The results are not anomalous. In other words, the relaxation is accelerated by the field, as expected for classical superparamagnetic fluctuations.