Uniaxial Magnetization Performance of Textured Fe Nanowire Arrays Electrodeposited by a Pulsed Potential Deposition Technique

Textured ferromagnetic Fe nanowire arrays were electrodeposited using a rectangular-pulsed potential deposition technique into anodized aluminum oxide nanochannels. During the electrodeposition of Fe nanowire arrays at a cathodic potential of − 1.2 V, the growth rate of the nanowires was ca. 200 nm s −1 . The aspect ratio of Fe nanowires with a diameter of 30 ± 5 nm reached ca. 2000. The long axis of Fe nanowires corresponded with the direction when a large overpotential during the on-time pulse was applied, whereas it orientated to the direction under the potentiostatic condition with a small overpotential. By shifting the on-time cathode potential up to − 1.8 V, the texture coefficient for the (200) plane, TC 200 , reached up to 1.94. Perpendicular magnetization performance was observed in Fe nanowire arrays. With increasing TC 200 , the squareness of Fe nanowire arrays increased up to 0.95 with the coercivity maintained at 1.4 kOe at room temperature. This research result has opened a novel possibility of Fe nanowire arrays that can be applied for a new permanent magnetic material without rare-earth metals.