The steady increase in cancer incidence, leading to high mortality and disability rates among the working-age population, underscores the importance of developing innovative therapeutic approaches. One promising strategy is magnetically guided microsurgery of individual tumor cells using functionalized magnetic nanostructures. Among different types of magnetic particles, nanodiscs demonstrate the greatest potential owing to their unique magnetic properties. Their capacity for modification with targeting molecules allows the development of highly specific systems for selective action on tumor cells. This review assesses the prospects of applying functionalized magnetic nanodiscs (referred to as a smart nanoscalpel) for the selective destruction of malignant cells. Materials and methods included a systematic analysis of scientific publications from 2022 to 2025 in PubMed using the keywords magnetic nanodiscs, malignant neoplasms, and magnetic nanoparticles. Particular attention is given to the mechanisms by which nanodiscs, under the influence of an alternating magnetic field, can selectively destroy tumor cells whereas preserving the viability of surrounding healthy cells. The analysis highlights the considerable potential of targeted magnetic nanodiscs as a promising adjuvant tool for the selective elimination of residual tumor cells in the postoperative period, as well as for the treatment of disseminated metastatic foci. However, translation of the magnetomechanical approach from experimental research into clinical practice requires comprehensive preclinical studies, including optimization of the physicochemical parameters of nanodiscs, thorough evaluation of efficacy and safety, and the development of standardized application protocols.
A novel oxyborate, NiCr(BO3)O, is synthesized using a flux method. The material crystallizes in an orthorhombic warwickite structure, space group Pbnm(62), with lattice parameters a = 9.3438(13) & Aring;, b = 9.0908(13) & Aring;, and c = 3.0507(4) & Aring;. Although Ni and Cr atoms are highly disordered over two inequivalent metal sites, the compound undergoes a magnetic phase transition at TN = 45 K, as characterized by maximum dc magnetization and ac susceptibility and a lambda-peak in heat capacity. Upon further cooling, another magnetic anomaly occurs at about 10 K. At high temperatures, magnetic susceptibility follows the Curie-Weiss law, with a highly negative Weiss temperature (theta approximate to -130 K), indicating strong predominance of antiferromagnetic coupling. The effective magnetic moment (mu eff) is approximate to 4.9 mu B per f.u. Field-induced spin-orientation transition is observed below TN for an external field applied perpendicular to the c-axis. Magnetic heat capacity was determined by subtracting the lattice heat capacity of the nonmagnetic analog. Debye temperature is evaluated to be 365 K. NiCr(BO3)O is the first example demonstrating magnetic ordering in the highly disordered oxyborate family.
It is known that in a weak magnetic field (H < 1 kOe) at T < TC approximate to 87 K, rare-earth cobalt oxide LaCoO3 has ferromagnetic properties. The physical mechanism of the emergence of ferromagnetism in LaCoO(3 )still remains unclear. We provided experimental evidence of the ferromagnetism and crystal lattice interconnection - the cause of ferromagnetic ordering is near-surface (defects) structural stresses. A theoretical model is proposed, within the framework of which the mechanism of the emergence of the magnetically ordered state in LaCoO3 is discussed.
Magnetic nanoparticles, consisting of a metallic iron core with a shell of gold and iron oxides, were synthesized by ultra-high vacuum surface nucleation on a water-soluble NaCl substrate followed by oxidation in water. Using the methods of electron microscopy, electron diffraction, photoelectron spectroscopy and calculation of the specific density of iron in the oxidized shell, the oxides gamma-Fe2O3, Fe3O4 and oxyhydroxide alpha-FeO(OH) were discovered. A non-uniform distribution of the Fe3+/Fe2+ ion ratio over the particle depth and a predominance of alpha-FeO(OH) in the contrast shell of nanoparticles, directly observed in transmission electron microscopy, were discovered. Comparison of the magnetic properties of partially gold-coated particles with similar Fe particles without gold showed a larger residual volume of unoxidized metal core with partial gold coating. This points to the anisotropy of the surface chemical properties associated with the Janus-like structure. For the first time, the magnetodynamic properties of partially gold-coated Fe nanoparticles were assessed by ellipsometric measurements of the surface of a colloidal solution in a gradient magnetic field.
High-vacuum carbosilicothermic reduction of MnOx thin films on Si(100) substrates was investigated in the temperature range of 200-700 degrees C using in-situ Auger electron spectroscopy along with mass spectroscopy and ex-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Carbothermic reduction of manganese, accompanied by the CO evolution, occurs over the entire temperature range. When heated above 500 degrees C, silicothermic reduction and formation of manganese silicides are observed. The efficiency of carbothermic reduction of Mn in thin films turned out to be higher at C:Mn = 1:10 than at C:Mn = 1:5. Carbon in the samples is assumed to be present in two forms: as amorphous carbon in a mixture with oxygen and manganese, and as individual, larger particles with a graphite structure. The particle size depends on the power of the magnetron source and influences the carbon coalescence activity, which competes with the carbothermic reduction process. The efficiency of silicothermic reduction on the film surface depends on the initial carbon concentration.
In this work, the effect of uniaxial pressure along the c axis on the electronic structure of the HTSC cuprate La2-xSrxCuO4 is investigated at the doping levels x = 0.1, 0.15, 0.25. The GTB method within the five-band p-d model framework is used to describe the electron system. The uniaxial compression leads to a significant reconstruction of the electronic structure and a change in the character of low-energy quasiparticle excitations: a large contribution of a1g symmetry orbitals appears at the top of the valence band. The crossover between the local Zhang-Rice singlet and the Emery-Reiter triplet was found at the pressure Pc = 15.1 GPa. The characteristic changes in the electronic structure under pressure occur abruptly as a result of the crossover. In particular, the top of the valence band displaces to the region around the k-point (pi,0), the Fermi contour transforms to the four pockets around (0,0),(2pi,0),(0,2pi),(2pi,2pi) and the one contour around (pi,pi).
Single crystals of Co2AlBO5 were synthesized using flux. The structural, magnetic, and electrical properties have been studied, with emphasis on cationic disorder effects. The Al3+ and Co2+ ions share four symmetry inequivalent sites. Large amplitudes of the displacement parameters for the M2 and M4 metal sites and the O4 oxygen site were found. The compound exhibits two magnetic transitions at T-1 = 41 K and T-2 = 20 K and shows a high crystallographic anisotropy. The random cationic distribution induces magnetic softness and an increase in electrical resistivity. The sources of the cationic disorder and the approach for controlling it are discussed.
The magnetic and electronic structures of Fe4O5 have been investigated at ambient and high pressures via a combination of representation analysis, density functional theory (DFT+U) calculations, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. A few spin configurations corresponding to the different irreducible representations have been considered. The total-energy calculations reveal that the magnetic ground state of Fe4O5 corresponds to an orthogonal spin order. Depending on the magnetic propagation vector k, two spin-ordered phases with minimal energy differences are realized. The lowest energy magnetic phase is related to k = (0, 0, 0) and is characterized by ferromagnetic ordering of iron magnetic moments at prismatic sites along the b-axis and antiferromagnetic ordering of iron moments at octahedral sites along the c-axis. For the k = (1/2, 0, 0) phase, the moments in the prisms are antiferromagnetically ordered along the b-axis and the moments in the octahedra are still antiferromagnetically ordered along the c-axis. Under high pressure, Fe4O5 exhibits magnetic transitions with the corresponding electronic transitions of the metal-insulator type. At a critical pressure PC ∼ 60 GPa, the Fe ions at the octahedral sites undergo a high-spin to low-spin state crossover with a decrease in the unit-cell volume of ∼4%, while the Fe ions at the prismatic sites remain in the high-spin state up to 130 GPa. This site-dependent magnetic collapse is experimentally observed in the transformation of Mössbauer spectra measured at room temperature and high pressures.
Background: Crystal structure of rare -earth LaCoO 3 cobalt oxide subjected to high energy mechanical activation has been studied. In the temperature range of 300-800 K, the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient were measured. Thermal conductivity was measured at 300-480 K. Methods: Comparative analysis of thermoelectric properties of the samples prepared by standard solid -state reaction and using high -energy mechanical activation was carried out. Findings: It was found that the experimental X-ray diffraction patterns are best described within the model that allows the coexistence of two domains in samples with the same crystal symmetry, but different lattice a and c parameters. The percentage ratio of these domains in the samples depends significantly on the size of the initial particles in the solid -state synthesis reaction and the annealing temperature. Mechanical activation and increase of synthesis temperature result in change of Seebeck coefficient sign and significant decrease of electrical resistivity. The Seebeck coefficient of non-activated samples takes positive values over the entire temperature range and decreases monotonically with increasing temperature, in contrast to mechanically activated samples exhibiting ambipolar behavior.
We present experimental and theoretical results of spin crossover studies in magnetically ordered materials. The effect of spin crossovers on the electronic structure of transition metal oxides and on the Bose condensation of spin excitons in the vicinity of the spin crossover is considered. A new method for calculating the interatomic superexchange interaction in transi-tion metal oxides is discussed that allows considering selective contributions of excited magnetic cation terms. Changes in the exchange interaction sign are predicted for spin crossovers for d5 -d7 ions. In the RCoO3 family of rare-earth cobaltites, the ground state is nonmagnetic, but, as the temperature increases, thermal excitations of high-spin states give rise to a number of experimentally detectable features. In defective RCoO3 sam-ples, stabilization of the high-spin term and ferromagnetic ordering are possible. Dynamical crossovers under external pumping and the dynamics of multiplicity, magnetization, and local lattice distortions are discussed. Geophysical implications spin crossovers are considered, and metallic properties of Earth's mantle at a depth of 1400 +/- 1800 km are predicted.
The use of spintronic devices with a tunable magnetic order on small scales is highly important for novel applications. The MAX phases containing transition metals and/or magnetic ion-substituted lattices attract a lot of attention. In this study, the magnetic and electronic properties of (Cr4-xFex)0.5AC (A = Ge, Si, Al) compounds were predicted and investigated within the density functional theory. It was established that single-substituted (Cr3Fe1)0.5AC (A = Ge, Si, Al) lattices are favorable in terms of energy. An analysis of the magnetic states of the MAX phases demonstrated that their spin order changes upon substitution of iron atoms for chromium ones. It was found that mostly the (Cr4-xFex)0.5GeC and (Cr4-xFex)0.5AlC lattices acquire a ferrimagnetic state in contrast to (Cr4-xFex)0.5SiC for which the ferromagnetic spin order dominates. It was pointed out that the atomic substitution could be an efficient way to tune the magnetic properties of proposed (Cr4-xFex)0.5AC (A = Ge, Si, Al) MAX phases.
The growth and phase formation features, along with the influence of structure and morphology on the electronic, optical, and transport properties of Cr2GeC and Cr2-xMnxGeC MAX phase thin films synthesized by magnetron sputtering technique, were studied. It was found that the Cr:Ge:C atomic ratios most likely play the main role in the formation of a thin film of the MAX phase. A slight excess of carbon and manganese doping significantly improved the phase composition of the films. Cr2GeC films with a thicknesses exceeding 40 nm consisted of crystallites with well-developed facets, exhibiting metallic optical and transport properties. The hopping conduction observed in the Cr2-xMnxGeC film could be attributed to the columnar form of crystallites. Calculations based on a two-band model indicated high carrier concentrations N, P and mobility μ in the best-synthesized Cr2GeC film, suggesting transport properties close to single crystal material. The findings of this study can be utilized to enhance the growth technology of MAX phase thin films.
The physics of high-Tc superconducting cuprates is obscured by the effect of strong electronic correlations. One way to overcome this problem is to seek an exact solution at least within a small cluster and expand it to the whole crystal. Such an approach is at the heart of cluster perturbation theory (CPT). Here, we developed CPT for the dynamic spin and charge susceptibilities (spin-CPT and charge-CPT), with the correlation effects explicitly taken into account by the exact diagonalization. We applied spin-CPT and charge-CPT to the effective two-band Hubbard model for the cuprates obtained from the three-band Emery model and calculated one- and two-particle correlation functions, namely, a spectral function and spin and charge susceptibilities. The doping dependence of the spin susceptibility was studied within spin-CPT and CPT-RPA, that is, the CPT generalization of the random phase approximation (RPA). In the underdoped region, both our methods resulted in the signatures of the upper branch of the spin excitation dispersion with the lowest excitation energy at the (π,π) wave vector and no presence of low-energy incommensurate excitations. In the high doping region, both methods produced a low energy response at four incommensurate wave vectors in qualitative agreement with the results of the inelastic neutron scattering experiments on overdoped cuprates.
CuO atomic thin monolayer (mlCuO) was synthesized recently. Interest in the mlCuO is based on its close relation to CuO2 layers in typical high temperature cuprate superconductors. Here, we present the calculation of the band structure, the density of states and the Fermi surface of the flat mlCuO as well as the corrugated mlCuO within the density functional theory (DFT) in the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). In the flat mlCuO, the Cu-3dx2−y2 band crosses the Fermi level, while the Cu-3dxz,yz hybridized band is located just below it. The corrugation leads to a significant shift of the Cu-3dxz,yz hybridized band down in energy and a degeneracy lifting for the Cu-3dx2−y2 bands. Corrugated mlCuO is more energetically favorable than the flat one. In addition, we compared the electronic structure of the considered CuO monolayers with bulk CuO systems. We also investigated the influence of a crystal lattice strain (which might occur on some interfaces) on the electronic structure of both mlCuO and determined the critical strains of topological Lifshitz transitions. Finally, we proposed a number of different minimal models for the flat and the corrugated mlCuO using projections onto different Wannier functions basis sets and obtained the corresponding Hamiltonian matrix elements in a real space.
Gd@C82OxHy endohedral complexes for advanced biomedical applications (computer tomography, cancer treatment, etc.) were synthesized using high-frequency arc plasma discharge through a mixture of graphite and Gd2O3 oxide. The Gd@C82 endohedral complex was isolated by high-efficiency liquid chromatography and consequently oxidized with the formation of a family of Gd endohedral fullerenols with gross formula Gd@C82O8(OH)20. Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to study the structure and spectroscopic properties of the complexes in combination with the DFTB3 electronic structure calculations and infrared spectra simulations. It was shown that the main IR spectral features are formed by a fullerenole C82 cage that allows one to consider the force constants at the DFTB3 level of theory without consideration of gadolinium endohedral ions inside the carbon cage. Based on the comparison of experimental FTIR and theoretical DFTB3 IR spectra, it was found that oxidation of the C82 cage causes the formation of Gd@C82O28H20, with a breakdown of the integrity of the parent C82 cage with the formation of pores between neighboring carbonyl and carboxyl groups. The Gd@C82O6(OOH)2(OH)18 endohedral complex with epoxy, carbonyl and carboxyl groups was considered the most reliable fullerenole structural model.
A tetravalent-substituted cobalt ludwigite Co2.5Ge0.5BO5 has been synthesized using the flux method. The compound undergoes two magnetic transitions: a long-range antiferromagnetic transition at TN1 = 84 K and a metamagnetic one at TN2 = 36 K. The sample-oriented magnetization measurements revealed a fully compensated magnetic moment along the a- and c-axes and an uncompensated one along the b-axis leading to high uniaxial anisotropy. A field-induced enhancement of the ferromagnetic correlations at TN2 is observed in specific heat measurements. The DFT+GGA calculation predicts the spin configuration of (↑↓↓↑) as a ground state with a magnetic moment of 1.37 μB/f.u. The strong hybridization of Ge(4s, 4p) with O (2p) orbitals resulting from the high electronegativity of Ge4+ is assumed to cause an increase in the interlayer interaction, contributing to the long-range magnetic order. The effect of two super-superexchange pathways Co2+-O-B-O-Co2+ and Co2+-O-M4-O-Co2+ on the magnetic state is discussed.
Three-layer iron-rich Fe3+xSi1−x/Ge/Fe3+xSi1−x (0.2 < x < 0.64) heterostructures on a Si(111) surface with Ge thicknesses of 4 nm and 7 nm were grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Systematic studies of the structural and morphological properties of the synthesized samples have shown that an increase in the Ge thickness causes a prolonged atomic diffusion through the interfaces, which significantly increases the lattice misfits in the Ge/Fe3+xSi1−x heterosystem due to the incorporation of Ge atoms into the Fe3+xSi1−x bottom layer. The resultant lowering of the total free energy caused by the development of the surface roughness results in a transition from an epitaxial to a polycrystalline growth of the upper Fe3+xSi1−x. The average lattice distortion and residual stress of the upper Fe3+xSi1−x were determined by electron diffraction and theoretical calculations to be equivalent to 0.2 GPa for the upper epitaxial layer with a volume misfit of −0.63% compared with a undistorted counterpart. The volume misfit follows the resultant interatomic misfit of |0.42|% with the bottom Ge layer, independently determined by atomic force microscopy. The variation in structural order and morphology significantly changes the magnetic properties of the upper Fe3+xSi1−x layer and leads to a subtle effect on the transport properties of the Ge layer. Both hysteresis loops and FMR spectra differ for the structures with 4 nm and 7 nm Ge layers. The FMR spectra exhibit two distinct absorption lines corresponding to two layers of ferromagnetic Fe3+xSi1−x films. At the same time, a third FMR line appears in the sample with the thicker Ge. The angular dependences of the resonance field of the FMR spectra measured in the plane of the film have a pronounced easy-axis type anisotropy, as well as an anisotropy corresponding to the cubic crystal symmetry of Fe3+xSi1−x, which implies the epitaxial orientation relationship of Fe3+xSi1−x (111)[0−11] || Ge(111)[1−10] || Fe3+xSi1−x (111)[0−11] || Si(111)[1−10]. Calculated from ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) data saturation magnetization exceeds 1000 kA/m. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of a Ge layer with thicknesses of 4 nm and 7 nm is of semiconducting type, which is, however, determined by different transport mechanisms.
Changes in the magnetic properties of FeBO3 single crystals in the course of spin crossover occurring with increasing pressure up to 63 GPa are studied both experimentally and theoretically. Simultaneous measurements of the nuclear diffraction and nuclear forward scattering spectra make it possible to detect the antiferromagnetic high-spin state at low pressures up to 48 GPa and to reveal the antiferromagnetic state within the range characterized by the coexistence of Fe3+ ions in the high-spin and low-spin states, which occurs at pressures from 48 to 54 GPa, where the hysteresis takes place. Above 58 GPa, only the low-spin state is observed, whereas the magnetic order is absent down to 9 K. An analysis of changes in the exchange interactions manifesting themselves at spin crossover suggests that there exist competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic contributions nearly compensating each other. A possible Néel temperature in the low-spin state does not exceed 7 K; thus, an ordered state cannot be observed in our experiments.