Exchange Bias in Iron-Oxide Particles Nanocasted in Periodic Porous Silica

Iron-oxide nanoparticles were nanocasted in the periodic mesoporous silica matrix, consisting of two-dimensional hexagonally ordered channel system with the mean diameter of the channels about 7 nm. The magnetic measurements of dc magnetization confirm behavior typical of a superparamagnetic system, such as the irreversibility of the zero-field-cooled and field-cooled curves, presence of a maximum in zero-field-cooled curve related with blocking temperature $T_C$ and revealing of coercivity $H_C$ below $T_C$. The existence of negative exchange bias effect below $T_C$ was confirmed in our system represented by value of exchange bias field $H_{EB}$=-970 Oe measured at the temperature 2 K.