Synthesis and Characterization of Semi-crystalline NiCoP Film

Abstract

The Ni–Co–P alloy film was electrodeposited on Cu substrate. The obtained Ni–Co–P alloy deposit was characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and vibrating sample magnetometer. The results suggest that there is microcrystal structure in NiCoP, and we conclude that there was a transitional structure between crystal and amorphousness. The SEM images of Ni–Co–P film exhibit essentially regular spherical shape morphology with different diameters. In addition, the Ni–Co–P deposit exhibits soft magnetic properties at room temperature. The high values of initial permeability for Ni–Co–P are comparable to the excellent corresponding values for sendust and MnZn ferrites and some cases for nanocrystalline (Fe base), Co-base amorphous alloys, and permalloys. Therefore, deposited Ni–Co–P alloy films are considered an interesting candidate for low-frequency indicators and transformer cores.