Magnetic hardening of Fe30Co70 nanowires. (25th September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Viñas, Sara Liébana; Salikhov, Ruslan; Bran, Cristina; Palmero, Ester M; Vazquez, Manuel; Arvan, Behnaz; Yao, Xiang; Toson, Peter; Fidler, Josef; Spasova, Marina; Wiedwald, Ulf; Farle, Michael
• Is Part Of: Nanotechnology. Volume 26:Number 41(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-09-25
• Subjects: magnetic nanowires -- magnetic anisotropy -- exchange coupling -- domain wall motion; Nanotechnology -- Periodicals; Nanotechnology -- Periodicals; Nanotechnology; Publications périodiques; Nanotechnologies; Periodicals; 620.5
• DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/26/41/415704
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0957-4484

Abstract

Abstract: 3 d transition metal-based magnetic nanowires (NWs) are currently considered as potential candidates for alternative rare-earth-free alloys as novel permanent magnets. Here, we report on the magnetic hardening of Fe30 Co70 nanowires in anodic aluminium oxide templates with diameters of 20 nm and 40 nm (length 6 μ m and 7.5 μ m, respectively) by means of magnetic pinning at the tips of the NWs. We observe that a 3–4 nm naturally formed ferrimagnetic FeCo oxide layer covering the tip of the FeCo NW increases the coercive field by 20%, indicating that domain wall nucleation starts at the tip of the magnetic NW. Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements were used to quantify the magnetic uniaxial anisotropy energy of the samples. Micromagnetic simulations support our experimental findings, showing that the increase of the coercive field can be achieved by controlling domain wall nucleation using magnetic materials with antiferromagnetic exchange coupling, i.e. antiferromagnets or ferrimagnets, as a capping layer at the nanowire tips.