A multistep ac electrodeposition method to prepare Co nanowires with high coercivity

It is known that the ac electrodeposition method with low current density can grow compact metal nanowires, but the length of those nanowires is very short. In contrast, the ac electrodeposition method with high current density can grow long metal nanowires. However these long nanowires are not compact and contain lots of defects. In this paper, we describe a multistep ac electrodeposition method to fabricate long metal nanowires with compact structure uniformly filled upon a porous anodic aluminum oxide template. Using this method, Co nanowires with high coercivity (Hc∥) and remnant ratio (Mr/Ms) have been prepared under relatively low deposition current density. The Co nanowires exhibited obvious magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis along the axial direction of nanowires. The maximal Hc∥ (2900 Oe) and Mr/Ms (0.95) were optimal for the perpendicular magnetic recording materials. The magnetic microstructure of Co nanowires is also discussed in this paper.