Towards smooth and pure iron nanowires grown by electrodeposition in self-organized alumina membranes
Received 1 September 2009; received in revised form 1 December 2009; accepted 8 December 2009. published online 31 December 2009.
Abstract
Due to their high aspect ratio, magnetic nanowires are interesting for various applications. Fe nanowires are of particular interest due to their high magnetization, which suggests high shape anisotropy is possible. Here, we show how the electrodeposition process can be adapted to the constraints of a high aspect ratio template in order to approach an ideal behaviour of smooth and pure Fe nanowires. An adjustment of the Fe2+ concentration and the addition of H3BO3 result in smooth and continuous nanowires; saturation polarization is achieved, together with an anisotropy field of up to 70% compared to pure Fe. Mössbauer spectroscopy reveals a negligible amount of impurities. Together with magnetic measurements we show that shape anisotropy aligns the preferential magnetization axis along the wire axis.
bTU Dresden, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 01062 Dresden, Germany
cTU Ilmenau, Institute of Materials Engineering and Institute of Micro- and Nanotechnologies IMN MacroNano, Department of Materials for Electronics, P.O. Box 100565, 98684 Ilmenau, Germany
dSlovak University of Technology, Department of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Ilkovicova 3, 812 19 Bratislava, Slovakia
ABSTRACT