Room temperature soft ferromagnetism in the nanocrystalline form of YCo₂- a well-known bulk Pauli paramagnet

Abstract

The Laves phase compound YCo₂ is a well-known exchange-enhanced Pauli paramagnet. We report here that, in the nanocrystalline form, this compound interestingly is an itinerant ferromagnet at room temperature with a low coercive field. The magnitude of the saturation moment (about 1μ_B per formula unit) is large enough to infer that the ferromagnetism is not a surface phenomenon in these nanocrystallites. Since these ferromagnetic nanocrystallites are easy to synthesize with a stable form in air, one can explore applications, particularly where the hysteresis is a disadvantage.