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arXiv · 2509.24131

Quantum Saturation of Magnetoelectric Coupling in Fe$_3$O$_4$ Nanoparticles

Jian Huang·Fatemeh Aghabozorgi·Stephanie Brock
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Abstract

We report magnetoelectric coupling in nanoparticle assemblies that persists to temperatures over 300 times lower than in previous studies. The ME response saturates at low temperature, revealing a quantum plateau of the coupling. A field dependence analysis shows a crossover from quadratic to linear behavior, captured by a phenomenological expansion $C(B,T) \simeq C_0(T) + a_1(T) B + a_2(T) B^2$. The magnitude of the extracted quadratic coefficient, $|a_2(T)|$, follows a power law $|a_2(T)| \sim T^{-\alpha}$ with $\alpha \approx 1.15$, indicating proximity to a quantum critical regime. The observed saturation reflects a new intrinsic energy scale, distinct from finite-size or extrinsic effects. These results establish nanoparticle assemblies as a new platform for studying quantum magnetoelectric phenomena.

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Jian Huang, Fatemeh Aghabozorgi, Stephanie Brock. 2025-09-29. Quantum Saturation of Magnetoelectric Coupling in Fe$_3$O$_4$ Nanoparticles. https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24131

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