Structure characterization of amorphous CoxGd1-x nanowires and magnetic properties of their arrays

As-synthesized nanowires fabricated by electrochemical deposition were characterized as amorphous alloy CoxGd1-x nanowires, and their crystalline temperature was about 520 K. As for the magnetic properties of nanowire arrays, the easy magnetization axis was found to be along the longitudinal axis of nanowires, which was mainly attributed to the shape anisotropy. The unique local random anisotropy of amorphous structures devoted to the increase of coercivities at low temperature and the shape of field-cooling and zero-fieldcooling curves, whose blocking temperature was higher than room temperature. No speromagnetic structures were found in the present study, and a good and stable soft ferrimagnetic performance of amorphous CoxGd1-x nanowires was illustrated by the hysteresis loops at temperature ranging from 5 to 300 K. © 2009 American Chemical Society.link_to_subscribed_fulltex