Superparamagnetism is a form of magnetism, which appears in small ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic nanoparticles. In sufficiently small nanoparticles, magnetization can randomly flip direction under the influence of temperature. The typical time between two flips is called the Néel relaxation time. In the absence of an external magnetic field, when the time used to measure the magnetization of the nanoparticles is much longer than the Néel relaxation time, their magnetization appears to be in average zero: they are said to be in the superparamagnetic state. In this state, an external magnetic field is able to magnetize the nanoparticles, similarly to a paramagnet. However, their magnetic susceptibility is much larger than that of paramagnets.
Superparamagnetism appears, depending on the materials, in particles below 50 nm with a single magnetic domain. Besides the above mentioned, other interesting properties of superparamagnetic nanoparticles are their short relaxation time, that is, the time in which magnetization goes to zero after the effect of an external magnetic field (typical values are around 10-9-10-10s), and the fact that under the effect of an alternating external magnetic field, their magnetic moments are quickly reoriented so that changes in the frequency and strength of the magnetic field lead to a loss power that heats the surrounding environment.