Specific absorption rate of magnetic nanoparticles: Nonlinear AC susceptibility

In the context of magnetic hyperthermia, several physical parameters are used to optimize the heat generation, and these include the nanoparticles concentration and the magnitude and frequency of the external AC magnetic field. Here, we extend our previous work by computing nonlinear contributions to the specific absorption rate, while taking into account (weak) inter-particle dipolar interactions and a DC magnetic field. In the previous work, the latter were shown to enhance the specific absorption rate in some specific geometries and setup. We find that the cubic correction to the AC susceptibility does not modify the qualitative behavior observed earlier but does bring a non-negligible quantitative change of specific absorption rate, especially at relatively high AC field intensities. Incidentally, within our approach based on the AC susceptibility, we revisit the physiological empirical criterion on the upper limit of the product of the AC magnetic field intensity H 0 and its frequency f and provide a physicist’s rationale for it.