Magneto-optical Properties of Iron Oxide Nanoclusters

We have developed a modified synthetic protocol for the growth of monodispersed, superparamagnetic, flower-like colloidal nanoclusters (CNCs) with 40-120 nm average diameters. Importantly, these are consisted of smaller iron oxide nanocrystals, also with adjustable size (12.2-7.7 nm). We show that their optical properties can be tuned by applying an external magnetic field. Spectrophotometric measurements under these conditions reveal a diffuse reflectance maximum in the visible range, which is related to the CNCs assembly in ordered structures. The increasing field strength leads to a blue shift in the spectral weight when the size of the CNCs is above a critical diameter. The size-dependent characteristics of the CNCs determine their magneto-optical behavior and their potential in photonic crystal based technologies.