Kinetic self-organization of trenched templates for the fabrication of versatile ferromagnetic nanowires

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to self-organize versatile ferromagnetic nanowires with tunable magnetic properties using kinetic roughening of trench templates on sapphire wafers, enabling control over wire period and magnetic anisotropy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel self-organization process for magnetic nanowires with variable periods and adjustable magnetic anisotropy energy on sapphire templates.

Findings

Nanowires with 4-12 nm period were successfully fabricated.

Magnetic anisotropy energy can be tuned by layer modifications.

Superparamagnetic temperature reached 175K.

Abstract

We have self-organized versatile magnetic nanowires, ie with variable period and adjustable magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE). First, using the kinetic roughening of W(110) uniaxial templates of trenches were grown on commercial Sapphire wafers. Unlike most templates used for self-organization, those have a variable period, 4-12nm are demonstrated here. Fe deposition then results in the formation of wires in the trenches. The magnitude of MAE could be engineered up or down by changing the capping- or underlayer, in turn affecting the mean superparamagnetic temperature, raised to 175K so far.