Magnetic nanoscale dots on colloid crystal surfaces

Abstract

We demonstrate that uniform, ordered, single-domain magnetic nanoscale dots can be fabricated on concentrated colloid surfaces. The substrate consists of compact silica nanosphere arrays grown on a glass wafer. Through the subsequent deposition and oxidation treatment of a Co film, monodisperse magnetic Co nanoscale dot arrays with controlled magnetic properties and size were obtained. We suggest that magnetic dots deposited on colloidal surfaces might open a way of developing artificially nanostructured materials for fundamental studies in nanomagnetism and for applications such as patterned magnetic recording media.