Effects of size and anisotropy of magnetic nanoparticles associated with dynamics of easy axis for magnetic particle imaging

The structure of magnetic nanoparticles affects the signal intensity and resolution of magnetic particle imaging, which is derived from the harmonics caused by the nonlinear response of magnetization. To understand the key effects of particle structures on the magnetization harmonics, the dependence of the harmonics on the size and anisotropy of different structures was investigated. We measured the harmonic signals with respect to different magnetic nanoparticle structures by applying an AC field with a gradient field for magnetic particle imaging, which was compared with the numerically simulated magnetization properties. In addition, the dynamics of the easy axis of magnetic nanoparticles in the liquid state were evaluated. The difference between the harmonics in the solid and liquid states indicates the effective core size and anisotropy due to particle structures such as single-core, chainlike, and multicore particles. In the case of the chainlike structure, the difference between the harmonics in the solid and liquid states was larger than other structures. In the numerical simulations, core diameters and anisotropy constants were considered as the effective values, such as the increase in anisotropy in the chainlike structure due to dipole interaction. The multicore particles showed high harmonics owing to their large effective core diameters. The superparamagnetic regime in the multicore structure despite the large effective core diameter was derived from the small effective anisotropy. The effective core size and the effective anisotropy of each particle structure and their impacts on the harmonic signals were revealed.