Structural and magnetic characterization of as-prepared and annealed FeCoCu nanowire arrays in ordered anodic aluminum oxide templates
- Institute of Materials Science of Madrid, CSIC, 28049 Madrid (Spain)
- International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, INL. Av. Mestre J. Veiga, 4715-330 Braga (Portugal)
Herein, we report on the preparation, structure, and magnetic characterization of FeCoCu nanowire arrays grown by DC electrodeposition inside self-assembled ordered nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide templates. A systematic study of their structure has been performed both in as-prepared samples and after annealing in the temperature range up to 800 °C, although particular attention has been paid to annealing at 700 °C after which maximum magnetic hardening is achieved. The obtained nanowires have a diameter of 40 nm and their Fe{sub 0.28}Co{sub 0.67}Cu{sub 0.05} composition was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Focused ion-beam lamellas of two samples (as-prepared and annealed at 700 °C) were prepared for their imaging in the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) perpendicularly to the electron beam, where the obtained EDS compositional mappings show a homogeneous distribution of the elements. X-ray diffraction analysis, and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns confirm that nanowires exhibit a bcc cubic structure (space group Im-3m). In addition, bright-dark field images show that the nanowires have a polycrystalline structure that remains essentially the same after annealing, but some modifications were observed: (i) an overall increase and sharpening of recrystallized grains, and (ii) an apparent shrinkage of the nanowires diameter. Obtained SAED patterns also show strong textured components with determined <111> and <112> crystalline directions parallel to the wires growth direction. The presence of both directions was also confirmed in the HRTEM images doing Fourier transform analyses. Magnetic measurements show strong magnetic anisotropy with magnetization easy axis parallel to the nanowires in as-prepared and annealed samples. The magnetic properties are tuned by suitable thermal treatments so that, maximum enhanced coercivity (∼2.7 kOe) and normalized remanence (∼0.91 Ms) values are achieved after annealing at temperature of 700 °C. The contribution of the changes in the crystalline structure, induced by the heat treatment, to the magnetic hardening of the FeCoCu nanowires is discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 22273684
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 13; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
ANNEALING
BCC LATTICES
COERCIVE FORCE
ELECTRODEPOSITION
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRON DIFFRACTION
FOURIER TRANSFORMATION
ION BEAMS
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES
MAGNETIZATION
POLYCRYSTALS
QUANTUM WIRES
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEXTURE
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY