Polymer mediated self-assembly of magnetic nanoparticles.

We present a simple polymer-mediated process of assembling magnetic FePt nanoparticles on a solid substrate. Alternatively absorbing the PEI molecule and FePt nanoparticles on a HO-terminated solid surface leads to a smooth FePt nanoparticle assembly with controlled assembly thickness and dimension. Magnetic measurements show that the thermally annealed FePt nanoparticle assembly as thin as three nanoparticle layers is ferromagnetic. The magnetization direction of this thin FePt nanoparticle assembly is readily controlled with the laser-assisted magnetic writing. The reported process can be applied to various substrates, nanoparticles, and functional macromolecules and will be useful for future magnetic nanodevice fabrication.