LOW-TEMPERATURE BEHAVIOR OF SINGLE-DOMAIN THROUGH MULTIDOMAIN MAGNETITE

Abstract

We have investigated the low-temperature behavior of a suite of 'grown' synthetic and natural magnetites that span single-domain (SD) and multidomain (MD) behavior. Synthetic samples had been grown in the laboratory either in an aqueous medium or in glass. Natural samples included SD magnetites occurring in plagioclase and truly MD magnetites in the form of large octahedra. In all experiments a sample was first given a saturation remanence at room temperature; next, moment was measured continuously during cooling and warming between 230 K and 60 K. Similar to results reported earlier by other workers, magnetic memory is large in SD samples, whereas truly MD samples are almost completely demagnetized by cycling between room temperature and 60 K. Pseudo-single-domain samples exhibit behavior that is intermediate with respect to that of the SD and truly MD states. When data from this study are combined with data obtained by Hartstra [10] from sized, natural magnetites, it is found that the percentage of total remanence that survives cycling between room temperature and 60 K decreases linearly with the logarithm of grain size and, thus, with increasing number of domains. This relation suggests that memory can provide a reasonable estimate of grain size in those magnetite-bearing rocks for which these samples provide good analogues. Remarkably, some of the large natural octahedra provide a magnified view of MD response to low temperatures and thus reveal two surprising and intriguing types of behavior. First, below approximately 180 K these octahedra demagnetize through a series of large Barkhausen jumps. Second, near 117 K these same octahedra exhibit a 'wild zone', where magnetic moment executes large, random excursions. We interpret these two phenomena as direct evidence for the unpinning and irreversible displacement of domain walls in response to the drop in coercivity and, possibly, the broadening of domain walls as temperatures drop toward the isotropic point. One implication of this behavior is that cooling to progressively lower temperatures could provide an effective method for stepwise removal of paleomagnetic components carried by MD grains, even without passage through the isotropic point of magnetite.