Fabrication and magnetic behavior of Co/Cu multilayered nanowires

Multilayered Co/Cu nanowires were fabricated using anodic alumina templates, containing 40-nm-diameter nanopores, and electrochemical deposition. The Cu layer thickness was varied to study the resulting differences in coercivity and magnetization reversal. Magnetization versus field loops both parallel and perpendicular to an applied field were measured to investigate the mechanisms of magnetization reversal. It was found that the coercivity decreased with increasing Cu thickness. In addition, the magnetization reversal appeared to be a combination of rotation and spin flipping, which was dependent on the Cu thickness and on the angle of the nanowires with the applied field.