Specific Heat of Superparamagnetic Particles

Abstract

The specific heat of an assembly of independent superparamagnetic particles has been calculated with the methods of statistical mechanics. The cases of isotropic particles in an applied field and anisotropic particles in the absence of a field have been considered. The specific heat calculated is temperature dependent and is of the order of k per particle at low temperatures. A smaller contribution varying linearly with temperature can also appear, thereby affecting the linear temperature coefficient of specific heat usually associated with the electronic specific heat. Conditions are discussed under which these effects should be experimentally observable.