  We present experimental, numerical, and theoretical evidence for a new mode
of antiferromagnetic dynamics in nanoparticles. Elastic neutron scattering
experiments on 8 nm particles of hematite display a loss of diffraction
intensity with temperature, the intensity vanishing around 150 K. However, the
signal from inelastic neutron scattering remains above that temperature,
indicating a magnetic system in constant motion. In addition, the precession
frequency of the inelastic magnetic signal shows an increase above 100 K.
Numerical Langevin simulations of spin dynamics reproduce all measured neutron
data and reveal that thermally activated spin canting gives rise to a new type
of coherent magnetic precession mode. This "rotor" mode can be seen as a
high-temperature version of superparamagnetism and is driven by exchange
interactions between the two magnetic sublattices. The frequency of the rotor
mode behaves in fair agreement with a simple analytical model, based on a high
temperature approximation of the generally accepted Hamiltonian of the system.
The extracted model parameters, as the magnetic interaction and the axial
anisotropy, are in excellent agreement with results from Mossbauer
spectroscopy.
