Magnetic hysteresis of individual Janus particles with hemispherical exchange-biased caps

Abstract: We use sensitive dynamic cantilever magnetometry to measure the magnetic hysteresis of individual magnetic Janus particles. These particles consist of hemispherical caps of magnetic material deposited on micrometer-scale silica spheres. The measurements, combined with corresponding micromagnetic simulations, reveal the magnetic configurations present in these individual curved magnets. In remanence, ferromagnetic Janus particles are found to host a global vortex state with vanishing magnetic moment. In contrast, a remanent onion state with significant moment is recovered by imposing an exchange bias to the system via an additional antiferromagnetic layer in the cap. A robust remanent magnetic moment is crucial for most applications of magnetic Janus particles, in which an external magnetic field actuates their motion.