Fabrication and manipulation of magnetic nanowires

The authors fabricated magnetic nanowires using electrochemical deposition technique and reported the growth of different types of nanowires and their manipulation on patterned magnetic structures. Short (5 micron) Ni wires and longer (20 micron) Au/Ni/Au/Ni were used as templates with the commercially available aluminium oxide porous membranes. To observe the ordering behavior of short nanowires on magnetic pattern, 20-nm thick NiFe squares was fabricated using optical lithography and SEM was used to show structure of aluminum oxide templates and the aggregation of patterned nanowires. The NiFe arrays were magnetized in a magnetic field and a solution of a short Ni nanowires was applied on top of the structures. Results showed that nanowires follow the magnetic field direction and it is possible to separate particles attached to nanowires by using magnetic fields. Also, it was observed that longer permanently magnetized nanowires arranged themselves according to their own dipole field.