A variety of synchrotron radiation techniques like soft X-ray magnetic circ
ular dichroism, near-edge as well as extended X-ray absorption fine structu
re, and synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction have been used to character
ise the crystal and electronic structure as well as the magnetic properties
of superparamagnetic nanocrystalline samples with the nominal composition
gamma-Fe2O3. The results are compared with data from bulk reference samples
like Fe3O4, Fe3-deltaO4, alpha-Fe2O3, and FeO.