Magnetically extracted microstructural development along the length of Co nanowire arrays: The interplay between deposition frequency and magnetic coercivity

Abstract

Providing practical implications for developing the design and optimizing the performance of hard magnets based on nanowires (NWs) requires an in-depth understanding of the processes in fabrication and magnetic parameters. Here, an electrochemical deposition technique with different frequencies is used to fabricate 50 nm diameter Co NW arrays into the nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide templates. The resulting NWs with dendrites at the base are subsequently exposed to a chemical etching with which to prepare cylindrical Co NWs with an aspect ratio of 200. In this way, the coercivity at room temperature increases up to 20% for different deposition frequencies, indicating the occurrence of a magnetic hardening along the NW length. Decreasing the length of the cylindrical NWs in ascending order whilst also using a successive magnetometry, the deposition frequency is found to be an important parameter in further enhancing the initial coercivity up to 65% in the length range of 10 to 3 μm. The first-order reversal curve diagrams evaluated along the NW length evidence the elimination of a soft magnetic phase and the formation of harder magnetic domains when reducing the length. Alternatively, X-ray diffraction patterns show improvements in the crystallinity along the [002] direction, pertaining to the alignment of the hexagonal close-packed c-axis of cobalt and long axis of NWs when reducing the length. These results may address the growing need for the creative design and low cost fabrication of rare-earth-free permanent magnets with high coercivity and availability.