Fe magnetic nanoparticle synthesis by high pressure sputtering

We have designed and developed a sputtering magnetron gun to synthesize nanoparticles. The particle gun employs a high pressure environment ($\sim $1 Torr) of argon gas that facilitates the particle formation by collision between the atoms. The particles get captured in the gas flow and they emerge out through an aperture in an inert gas atmosphere of a few millitorrs. Fe nanoparticles produced using the particle gun are characterized using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy and tapping mode AFM results confirm the formation of nanoparticles. The particle size is found to be in the range 10-50 nm; it shows a marked increase as a function of gas pressure. The X-ray diffraction measurements on these particles consist of main Fe peak along with a minor oxide phase. The average particle size measured in the AFM measurements agrees with that of the XRD results. Our goal is to deposit these nanoparticles on a magnetic film in order to study the domains of the magnetic film and hence develop a high resolution bitter microscopy (HRBM) imaging system.