Memory and aging effects in NiO nanoparticles

We report studies on magnetization dynamics in NiO nanoparticles of average size 5 nm. Temperature and time dependence of dc magnetization, wait time dependence of magnetic relaxation (aging) and memory phenomena in dc magnetization are studied with various temperature and field protocols. We observe that the system shows memory and aging in field-cooled and zero-field-cooled magnetization measurements. These experiments show that the magnetic behavior of NiO nanoparticles is similar to spin glasses. We argue that the spin glass behavior originates from the freezing of spins at the surface of the individual particles.