Structure and magnetic properties of nanostructured Pd-Fe thin films produced by pulse electrodeposition

TL;DR

This study investigates the structure and magnetic properties of nanostructured Pd-Fe thin films produced by pulse electrodeposition, revealing phase composition, grain size, and magnetic behavior variations with iron content.

Contribution

It provides detailed analysis of how Fe content influences the crystal structure, grain size, and magnetic properties of electrodeposited Pd-Fe thin films, including FMR characterization.

Findings

Higher Fe content leads to different crystal structures (fcc vs bcc)

Grain size varies from 7-10 nm to about 120 nm with Fe concentration

Magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization and coercivity depend on Fe content

Abstract

Nanostructured Pd-Fe thin films with varied Fe content were prepared by electrodeposition technique from organic electrolytes on Cu and brass substrates. The structure and the magnetic properties of the films were investigated prior to post-deposition annealing. The structure of the Pd1-xFex thin films with x = 0.14, 0.24, and 0.52 was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) as a solid solution of iron in palladium face-centered cubic lattice with the (111) orientation of nanograins relatively to the substrate surface. The films with higher iron concentration, x = 0.74, 0.91, have structure of a solid solution based on the body-centered cubic lattice. The average grain size determined by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the first two alloys is 7-10 nm, and for the latter ones it is about 120 nm. The saturation magnetization of the films has linear dependence on the iron content, but coercivity has non-monotonic dependence on x, i.e. the films with x = 0.68 show highest coercivity. The magnetic anisotropy of the samples is studied by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectroscopy.