Magneto-optical properties of superparamagnetic spinel ferrite nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles show great promise as new materials for a host of novel applications, including directed drug delivery devices, high-density storage media, as well as nano- and micro sensors and/or devices. The study of the magneto-optical properties of such materials lead to new insights into the fundamental properties of magnetism, and provides another tool to determine how microscopic changes in nanoparticle composition lead to macroscopic changes in magnetic behavior. Factors such as ion occupancy populations, energy of probe light, and effective induced fields all lead to great changes in MO behavior. The bulk of this thesis deals primarily with the design and implementation of an instrumental method to measure these properties reliably and efficiently, and how magneto optical properties of a particular nanoparticle system are altered as a function of changes in diameter, composition, and probe light energy.