The Role of Cu Length on the Magnetic Behaviour of Fe/Cu Multi-Segmented Nanowires
Suellen Moraes,
David Navas,
Fanny Béron,
Mariana P. Proenca,
Kleber R. Pirota,
Célia T. Sousa,
João P. Araújo
Affiliations
Suellen Moraes
Instituto de Física dos Materiais da Universidade do Porto—Instituto de Nanotecnologia and Department Física e Astronomia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
David Navas
Instituto de Física dos Materiais da Universidade do Porto—Instituto de Nanotecnologia and Department Física e Astronomia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
Fanny Béron
Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin (IFGW), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP 13083-859, Brazil
Mariana P. Proenca
Instituto de Física dos Materiais da Universidade do Porto—Instituto de Nanotecnologia and Department Física e Astronomia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
Kleber R. Pirota
Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin (IFGW), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP 13083-859, Brazil
Célia T. Sousa
Instituto de Física dos Materiais da Universidade do Porto—Instituto de Nanotecnologia and Department Física e Astronomia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
João P. Araújo
Instituto de Física dos Materiais da Universidade do Porto—Instituto de Nanotecnologia and Department Física e Astronomia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal
A set of multi-segmented Fe/Cu nanowires were synthesized by a two-step anodization process of aluminum substrates and a pulsed electrodeposition technique using a single bath. While both Fe segment length and diameter were kept constant to (30 ± 7) and (45 ± 5) nm, respectively, Cu length was varied between (15 ± 5) and (120 ± 10) nm. The influence of the non-magnetic layer thickness variation on the nanowire magnetic properties was investigated through first-order reversal curve (FORC) measurements and micromagnetic simulations. Our analysis confirmed that, in the multi-segmented Fe/Cu nanowires with shorter Cu segments, the dipolar coupling between Fe segments controls the nanowire magnetic behavior, and its performance is like that of a homogenous Fe nanowire array of similar dimensions. On the other hand, multi-segmented Fe/Cu nanowires with larger Cu segments act like a collection of non-interacting magnetic entities (along the nanowire axis), and their global behavior is mainly controlled by the neighbor-to-neighbor nanodisc dipolar interactions.
