Fabrication and characterization of nanostructured Fe3S4, an isostructural compound of half-metallic Fe3O4

High-purity, well-crystallized spinel Fe3S4 nanoplatelets were synthesized by the hydrothermal method, and the saturation magnetic moment of Fe3S4 was measured at 1.83 μB/f.u. The temperature-dependent resistivity of Fe3S4 was metallic-like for T < 180 K: room-temperature resistivity was measured at 7.711 × 103 μΩ cm. The anomalous Hall conductivity of Fe3S4 decreased with increasing longitudinal conductivity, in sharp contrast with the accepted theory of the anomalous Hall effect in a dirty-metal regime. Furthermore, negligible spin-dependent magnetoresistance was observed. Band structure calculations confirmed our experimental observations that Fe3S4 is a metal and not a half metal as expected.