Controlled electrochemical synthesis and magnetic characterization of permalloy nanotubes

Well-ordered 1D Permalloy (Ni80Fe20) nanostructures (nanotubes and nanowires) have been fabricated successfully in the nanopores of anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) templates by using DC electrodeposition after optimizing deposition voltage and time. Morphology and crystal structure of nanotubes and nanowires were explored by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. Both nanotubes and nanowires depict well-ordered and uniform growth. Fabricated nanowires show the polycrystalline nature having a face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal structure with preferred orientation along (111) plane. The magnetic behavior of Permalloy nanotubes and nanowires were analyzed by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) which reveals that the easy axis, for nanowires, is parallel to the nanowire axis while for nanotubes, the easy axis lies in the direction perpendicular to the nanotube axis due to the dominance of shape anisotropy. The magnetization reversal behavior of nanowires indicates the coherent reversal mode. This work will provide a useful application in spintronics and high-density data storage devices.