Fabrication of CoFe2O4 ferrite nanowire arrays in porous silicon template and their local magnetic properties**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61271039), the Scientific Projects of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 2015HH0016), and the Natural Science Foundations of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant Nos. LQ12E02001 and Y107255).

Abstract

CoFe2O4 ferrite nanowire arrays are fabricated in porous silicon templates. The porous silicon templates are prepared via metal-assisted chemical etching with gold (Au) nanoparticles as the catalyst. Subsequently, CoFe2O4 ferrite nanowires are successfully synthesized into porous silicon templates by the sol–gel method. The magnetic hysteresis loop of nanowire array shows an isotropic feature of magnetic properties. The coercivity and squareness ratio (Mr/Ms) of ensemble nanowires are found to be 630 Oe (1 Oe, = 79.5775 A·m−1 and 0.4 respectively. However, the first-order reversal curve (FORC) is adopted to reveal the probability density function of local magnetostatic properties (i.e., interwire interaction field and coercivity). The FORC diagram shows an obvious distribution feature for interaction field and coercivity. The local coercivity with a value of about 1000 Oe is found to have the highest probability.