Magnetic properties of nanoparticle compacts with controlled broadening of the particle size distribution

Binary random compacts with different proportions of small (volume V) and large (volume 2V) essentially bare maghemite nanoparticles are used to investigate the effect of controllably broadening the particle size distribution on the magnetic properties of magnetic nanoparticle assemblies with strong dipolar interaction. A series of eight random mixtures of highly uniform 9.0- and 11.5-nm-diameter maghemite particles prepared by thermal decomposition is studied. In spite of the severely broadened size distributions in the mixed samples, well-defined superspin glass transition temperatures are observed across the series, their values increasing linearly with the weight fraction of large particles.