Magnetism of Fe, Co and Ni nanowires in self-assembled arrays

TLDR

Recent studies of electro‑deposited transition‑metal nanowire arrays in porous anodic alumina reveal nearly hexagonal arrangements with sub‑10‑nm diameters, micrometer lengths, and ~50‑nm spacing, and provide magnetic data and theoretical insights into their behavior. The study focuses on extrinsic effects such as coercivity, magnetization reversal, and inter‑wire interactions in these nanowire arrays. The authors analyze how wire imperfections induce magnetic localization that dominates the hysteresis behavior. Potential applications of these nanowire arrays are discussed.

Abstract

Recent work on magnetic properties of transition-metal nanowire arrays produced by electro-deposition is reviewed. The wires, which are electro-deposited into self-assembled porous anodic alumina, form nearly hexagonal arrays characterized by wire diameters down to less than 10 nm, wire lengths up to about 1 µm, and variable centre-to-centre spacings of the order of 50 nm. The fabrication and structural characterization of the arrays is summarized, magnetic data are presented and theoretical explanations of the behaviour of the wires are given. Emphasis is on extrinsic phenomena such as coercivity, magnetization reversal and interactions of the magnetic nanowires. In particular, we analyse how wire imperfections give rise to magnetic localization and dominate the hysteresis behaviour of the wires. Potential applications are outlined in the last section.