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Magnetic Anisotropy Evolution in CoFe/Au Barcode Nanowire Arrays

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DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2013.2279278

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 50, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014 2500204

Magnetic Anisotropy Evolution in CoFe/Au Barcode Nanowire Arrays

Bum Chul Park, Bong Gun Kim, Hyo Won Seo, and Young Keun Kim
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 136-713, Korea

Owing to their multifunctional properties, multisegmented metallic nanowires have generated interest for potential applications in
magnetics and biology. In this paper, we present the magnetic properties of Co Fe Au barcode nanowire arrays with CoFe and Au
segments of various diameters and thicknesses. The distinct anisotropic behavior and magnetization reversal process depending upon
these geometric factors were investigated. As the diameter increased (50–200 nm), the easy-axis direction changed from parallel (//) to
perpendicular ( ) to the nanowire axis. As the intersegment spacing increased ( nm), the easy-axis direction tended
to lie in the plane of the nanowires. In addition, we examined the changes in the magnetization reversal modes.
Index Terms—Barcode nanowire, CoFe/Au, electrodeposition, magnetic anisotropy.

I. INTRODUCTION trodeposition was effective in forming highly ordered nanowire

arrays. First, 300-nm-thick Ag conductive layers were de-

I NTEREST in ferromagnetic/noble-metal barcode posited by means of e-beam evaporation on commercially

nanowires has been increasing because of their multifunc-
tional and structural advantages compared to their counterparts,
single-component nanowires. Although studies have actively
investigated the synthesis of metallic barcode nanowires (e.g.,
Fe/Au [1], Ni/Au [2], and NiFe/Au [3]), studies of magnetic
interactions in magnetic barcode nanowires have been less
common. To apply nanowire arrays to various fields such as
magnetic recording media, magnetic nano-assemblies, and
magnetic sensors, it is necessary to confirm the correlation
between their dimensions and magnetic properties [4]–[7].
The CoFe alloy is one of the most suitable materials for fab-
ricating ferromagnetic segments because of its high saturation
magnetization ( ) and the relatively wide range of possibil-
ities for modulating its magnetic properties [8]–[10]. We can
easily control the geometric factors of barcode nanowire arrays
by tailoring the thickness of noble-metal segments such as gold
(Au), which is biocompatible and has optical characteristics in-
duced by surface plasmon resonances [11]. Accordingly, the ad-
vantages of CoFe/Au barcode nanowire arrays can broaden their
applications for use in biosensors and biomedicine [11], [12].
Previously, we confirmed that the magnetic properties of
CoFe/Au barcode nanowires depended on their composition
[13]. In this study, to understand their magnetic behavior,
we fabricated CoFe/Au barcode nanowire arrays by pulsed
electrodeposition that had different diameters and segmental
thicknesses of CoFe and Au. In particular, we focused on
observing the effects of dimensional or geometric control on
the magnetic anisotropy.
II. EXPERIMENT
The CoFe/Au barcode nanowires were synthesized via pulsed
electrodeposition in a single bath using an anodized aluminum
oxide (AAO) nanoporous template. This template-based elec-
available AAO membranes with nominal pore diameters of 50,
100, and 200 nm (Synkera Tech., Inc., for 50- and 100-nm pore
sizes, Whatman, Inc., Anodisc for 200-nm pore size). Co and Fe
sulfates (0.16 M) at the same molar concentrations were mixed;
thereafter, Au cyanide [KAu CN , 0.008 M], boric acid, and
ascorbic acid (0.03 M) were added in this order. Ascorbic acid
was used to prevent Fe ion oxidation (Fe Fe ), and the
pH of the boric acid was maintained in the range of 3.0–3.5.
The electrodeposition system was comprised of a designed cell
to hold the solution with an AAO nanotemplate for the working
electrode and platinum (Pt) foil for the counter electrode. Two
different currents were sequentially applied using the pulsed
mode under ambient conditions. For the AAO template with
a pore size of 200 nm, CoFe and Au layers were deposited
at current densities of 10 and mA/cm , respectively. In
contrast, current densities of 4.2 and mA/cm were applied
for pore sizes of 50 and 100 nm, respectively, considering the
pore density of the AAO nanotemplates. These deposition
conditions were proven to achieve an equiatomic Co Fe
composition [14] that possessed a saturation magnetization
( ) value of emu/cm [13]. The morphology and com-
position of the barcode nanowire arrays were analyzed using
field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The
magnetic properties were measured using vibrating sample
magnetometry (VSM).
We synthesized multisegmented nanowire arrays for two ex-
periments. First, we fabricated multisegmented nanowire arrays
using three different nanowire diameters with CoFe (magnetic)
segment variations. Nanowire arrays with two different thick-
nesses of CoFe segments ( 25 and 600 nm) for three dif-
ferent diameters of nanowires ( 50, 100, and 200 nm) were
studied. Second, we fabricated three different thicknesses of Au
segments ( 50, 100, and 200 nm) for four different thick-
nesses of the magnetic segments (25, 100, 200, and 600 nm) and
studied their magnetic behaviors.

Manuscript received May 06, 2013; revised July 12, 2013; accepted August
18, 2013. Date of current version December 23, 2013. Corresponding author:
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Y. K. Kim (e-mail: ykim97@korea.ac.kr).
The morphologies of the six different CoFe barcode nanowire
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. arrays are displayed in Fig. 1. Fig. 1 (a)–(c) shows dif-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2013.2279278 ferent nanowires classified according to their diameters. The

0018-9464 © 2013 IEEE

2500204
Fig. 1. SEM images of CoFe/Au barcode nanowires embedded in an AAO
nanotemplate. Nanowire diameters are (a) 50 nm, (b) 100 nm, and (c) 200 nm
with 25-nm-thick (left side) and 600-nm-thick (right side) CoFe segments.
nanowires had a total of 60 repeats of both CoFe and Au
segments. The CoFe (magnetic) segments were approximately
25-nm-thick (left side of figure) and 600-nm-thick (right side of
figure), whereas the Au segments were all about 50-nm-thick.
Note that the pitches (wire center to wire center distances) are
about 130, 260, and 390 nm for nanowire arrays with diameters
of 50, 100, and 200 nm. As shown in Fig. 1, the CoFe barcode
nanowires were highly uniform and had distinct interfaces.
The magnetic characteristics of the CoFe barcode nanowire
arrays were measured using VSM and are shown in Figs. 2–4.
In our previous study, the evolution of the magnetic behavior
was confirmed only according to the changing thickness of the
magnetic segments [14]. To clarify the effect of the geometric
factors on the magnetic anisotropy and magnetization reversal
process, we controlled the barcode nanowire diameters and in-
tersegment spacing. In general, CoFe barcode nanowire arrays
possess soft magnetic characteristics with coercivities ranging
from 20 to 177 Oe. According to the intersegment and inter-
wire interactions of the arrays, a low coercivity ( ) and in-
clined hysteresis loops have been presented [15]. In addition, a
low magnetic remanence ( ) was found.
As shown in Fig. 2, we prepared the samples by varying the
diameters ( ) and thicknesses of the magnetic CoFe segment
( ) while the nonmagnetic Au thickness ( ) was fixed
at 50 nm. An external magnetic field was applied in two dif-
ferent directions, i.e., parallel (//) and perpendicular ( ) to the
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 50, NO. 1, JANUARY 2014
Fig. 2. Magnetic property analyses of CoFe/Au barcode nanowire arrays with
different diameters and CoFe segmental thicknesses while the Au thickness was
fixed at 50 nm: diameters of (a) 50 nm, (b) 100 nm, and (c) 200 nm with 25-nm-
thick (left side) and 600-nm-thick (right side) CoFe segments.
nanowires’ axes. One of the key findings in this study was an
observation of the evolution of the magnetic anisotropy. When
the diameter was varied, the easy axis tended to lie out-of-plane
for the case of nm. In contrast, for a fixed
of 25 nm, the direction of the easy axis changed from parallel
(//) to isotropic and perpendicular ( ) to the nanowire axis as
the diameter increased from 50 to 200 nm. Overall, the easy
axis was parallel to the nanowire axis as the aspect ratio (
) increased. On the basis of this result, we can consider
that the shape anisotropy of the barcode nanowires played an
important role in the evolution of the magnetic anisotropy. In
a nonspherical case (e.g., nanowires), magnetization is easier
along the long axis of the nanostructure than along the short
axis; this is because the demagnetizing field along the short axis
is stronger than that along the long axis [17]. Because the CoFe
alloy segments are polycrystalline and predominantly have a
body-centered cubic structure with (110) texture [14], the con-
tribution of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy to the determina-
tion of the magnetic anisotropy should be small [18], [19].
In addition, we also controlled the spacing between the mag-
netic segments by changing the Au spacer thickness ( ) to
observe the effect of intersegmental interactions. The number
of CoFe and Au segments was fixed at 60, and the diameter of
the nanowires was fixed at 200 nm. Fig. 3 shows the magnetic
hysteresis behavior of the CoFe/Au nanowire arrays for three
different values of (50, 100, and 200 nm) and four different
values of (25, 100, 200, and 600 nm).
Table I lists the saturation field ( ) values obtained from
the hysteresis loops shown in Fig. 3. The easy-axis direction
PARK et al.: MAGNETIC ANISOTROPY EVOLUTION IN COFE/AU BARCODE NANOWIRE ARRAYS 2500204

Fig. 3. Collection of magnetic hysteresis loops of CoFe/Au barcode nanowire arrays with different thicknesses of CoFe and Au segments while the diameter was
fixed at 200 nm: (a) nm ( ), (b) nm ( ), (c) nm ( ), and (d) nm ( ),
with nm (top), nm (middle), and nm (bottom).

TABLE I
SATURATION FIELDS OF VARIOUS COFE/AU BARCODE NANOWIRE ARRAYS

was determined by comparing the magnitude of the saturation

fields in each direction. Overall, for a fixed of the CoFe seg-
ments, the easy axes tended to lie along the direction perpendic-
ular to the nanowire axis as increased from 50 to 200 nm.
Specifically, as depicted in Fig. 3(b), the direction of the easy
axis changed from parallel to isotropic to perpendicular to the
nanowire axis as increased from 50 to 100 to 200 nm while
the was fixed at 100 nm. For a longer distance between the
CoFe segments, a higher of CoFe was required to switch the
easy axis to parallel to the nanowire axis. When the magneto-
static coupling becomes stronger as the intersegmental distance
decreases, it assists to form an easy axis parallel to the nanowire
axis [17], [20].
Magnetization reversal generally occurs by nucleation and
displacement of the domain walls [20]. The angular depen-
dence of the coercivity and magnetic remanence are directly
Fig. 4. Angular dependence of in CoFe/Au barcode nanowire arrays with
related to the magnetization reversal process. Determining an different thicknesses of CoFe and Au segments while the diameter was fixed at
energetically suitable mode is possible because the coercivity 200 nm: (a) nm, (b) nm, and (c) nm for four
of the three major reversal modes (i.e., coherent, transverse, values. Value at 90 is defined as the field direction perpendicular to the
nanowire axis.
and curling) can be calculated [21]–[23]. The effects of in-
terwire interactions on the magnetization reversal behavior of
nanowire arrays have been examined by several researchers intersegmental magnetostatic interactions of nanowire arrays,
[18], [22], [23]. However, very few studies have considered the in particular, with barcode arrangements.
2500204
Fig. 4 shows angular dependence of behaviors. All curves
are almost bilaterally symmetric, and the values decrease
with a gentle slope up to 90 , except for the case of
nm and nm [in Fig. 4(a)]. The decreases of
values manifests that the magnetization reversal process was
governed by transverse domain wall mode. Meanwhile, the op-
posite curvature of curve for the case of nm
and nm was explained by magnetic curling mode
[14]. Note that Fig. 4(a) originally appeared in our previous
work [14] and we presented it again here for the purpose of
comparison. The curling mode disappeared as increased
over 100 nm. This mechanism can be attributed to an increase
of intersegmental magnetostatic coupling as the thickness of
magnetic segment increases. We presume that the threshold
value for curling mode to transverse mode transition exists when
nm. However, further analytical studies are re-
quired to find out the exact reversal mechanism [20]–[23].
IV. CONCLUSION
We successfully fabricated metallic barcode nanowire ar-
rays divided into magnetic (Co Fe ) and nonmagnetic (Au)
segments by pulsed electrodeposition in a single bath. These
nanowires showed distinct interfaces between the magnetic
and nonmagnetic segments. By analyzing the magnetic hys-
teresis curves for arrays with different geometrical factors, we
confirmed that shape anisotropy was the dominant effect to
determine the magnetic anisotropy of nanowires. The variations
in intersegment spacing caused the evolution of the magnetic
anisotropy and magnetization reversal process.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by National Research Foundation
of Korea under Grant NRF-2010-0017950.
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