Investigation of the interactions of PVDF shell films with Ni core submicron wires and AAO matrix

Abstract

Arrays of Ni submicron wires surrounded by poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) submicron tubes were prepared via solution-processed polymer and Ni electrodeposition into anodic aluminum oxide template. The PVDF solution was filtered in vacuum through the template and the resulting dried structure was used for the electrodeposition of Ni wires. The obtained core-shell submicron wire structure consists of a metallic magnetic nanowire core of about 50 μm in length and about 300 nm diameter surrounded by a polymer tube shell with thickness less than 10 nm. The specific ferroelectric β-phase of the polymer was obtained whereas the magnetic behavior of the Ni-cores was proven to be specific to an array of ferromagnetic Ni cylindrical wires (about 0.62 μB/Ni atom) with magnetization reversal mechanisms dominated by dipolar interactions and domain wall displacements. No significant differences of the magnetization reversal mechanism were observed in case of Ni submicron wires surrounded by PVDF tubes and similar Ni wires without PVDF shell, suggesting that magneto-coupling effects in such systems might be observed only by measuring the perturbation of the electric state of the polymer shell under a magnetic excitation of the Ni cores.