Magnetic properties of some opal-based nanocomposites

Nanoparticles of complex titanium, cobalt, and manganese oxides with ilmenite and spinel structure have been synthesized in pores of an opal. The particle composition has been determined by X-ray diffraction analysis. The magnetic properties of the obtained nanocomposites with different particles embedded in pores have been studied. The temperature dependences of the dc and ac magnetizations in the range from 2 to 300 K have been measured. It has been shown that the magnetic ordering in all the nanocomposites studied emerges at temperatures above 150 K, which not in all cases can be related directly to the properties of the materials identified by X-ray diffraction. The appearance of peaks in the ZFC susceptibility and ac magnetization curves below 50 K is assigned to disordering and frustration in nanoparticles of titanates of the type of CoTiO$_3$, NiTiO$_3$, and Co$_2$TiO$_4$.