Morphology and magnetic properties of the ethylene-co-vinyl acetate/iron nanocomposite films prepared by implantation with Fe6+ ions

Abstract

Ethylene-co-vinyl acetate/iron nanocomposite films were fabricated by implantation with multiplecharged ions at different fluencies. The films obtained with ion fluency of 1 × 1017cm−2were used forspecific studies. It was found that spherical ∼1.5 nm diameter nanoparticles were formed upon implan-tation. They were clustered into a single 80 nm wide strip about 40 nm beneath the film surface. Themagnetic measurements of the film showed that the particles exhibit superparamagnetic behavior witha blocking temperature below 5 K. A second type of the samples was also prepared with ion fluencyof 1 × 1017cm−2, but prior to implantation, the iron was evaporated onto the co-polymer surface. Ananocomposite film of different morphology was obtained upon the implantation and the particles weremuch smaller (∼0.8 nm). The magnetic behavior of both the films was that of isolated nanoparticles,despite the high ion fluency of 1 × 1017cm−2.