Magnetic Properties of Highly-Ordered Ni, Co and Their Alloy Nanowires in AAO Templates

We have fabricated metal/alumina hybrid materials by electrodepositon of metal nanowires into nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide templates. Single crystalline Ni and Co nanowires have been successfully fabricated. Structural characterization (XRD and HRTEM) shows that the single crystalline Ni nanowire has a preferred orientation along (220) direction. The preferred orientation of Co nanowire is along (100). These single crystalline Ni and Co nanowires have exhibited excellent magnetic properties. Their alloy nanowires have exhibited a large shift in hysteresis, probably due to the surface oxidation and exchange bias effect.