A Tunable Magnetic Domain Wall Conduit Regulating Nanoparticle Diffusion

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 16; no. 8; pp. 5169 - 5175
• Main Authors: Tierno, Pietro, Johansen, Tom H, Sancho, José M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 10.08.2016
• Subjects: magnetic thin films; domain walls; Diffusion; nanofluidics
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b02112

We demonstrate a general and robust method to confine on a plane strongly diffusing nanoparticles in water by using size tunable magnetic channels. These virtual conduits are realized with pairs of movable Bloch walls located within an epitaxially grown ferrite garnet film. We show that once inside the magnetic conduit the particles experience an effective local parabolic potential in the transverse direction, while freely diffusing along the conduit. The stiffness of the magnetic potential is determined as a function of field amplitude that varies the width of the magnetic channel. Precise control of the degree of confinement is demonstrated by tuning the applied field. The magnetic conduit is then used to realize single files of nonpassing particles and to induce periodic condensation of an ensemble of particles into parallel stripes in a completely controllable and reversible manner.