Enhanced magnetocrystalline anisotropy in an ultra-dense array of air-exposed crystalline cobalt nanowires

Abstract

The magnetic anisotropy of an ultradense array of crystalline cobalt nanowires is investigated by means of broadband ferromagnetic resonance and magnetic torque measurements. The array is grown epitaxially in solution on a Pt(111) film and consists of single crystalline metallic wires with a diameter of 6.2 nm and a center-to-center interwire distance of 9.6 nm. The shape anisotropy and the Co hexagonal compact structure with the c-axis along the wire axis combine with each other to impose a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy despite the high density of 8 × 1012 wires/in.2. The intrinsic uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants K1 and K2 are extracted from the ferromagnetic resonance and torque measurements using a mean field approach accounting for the interwire dipolar interactions. At room temperature, and despite air exposure, an unexpected increase of K1 and K2 of more than 40% with respect to the bulk is evidenced.