Effect of length on the magnetic properties of Ni 300 nm wide nanowires

The Ni 300 nm wide nanowires were fabricated inside the as-synthesized nanochannels of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template by electrochemical deposition method. The angular dependence of coercivity and remanence of Ni nanowire arrays with various lengths have been comparatively studied. Investigation results demonstrate that the easy axis is along the wire axis for the longer nanowires of 4 μm or 9 μm in length due to their large shape anisotropy. However, the magnetostatic coupling is dominant for the shorter nanowires of 0.9 μm in length resulting in the change of magnetization behaviors, including coercivity and easy axis. A further explanation was also given by simple calculation in the paper.