Micromagnetic behavior of electrodeposited Ni/Cu multilayer nanowires

Ni/Cu multilayer nanowires have been fabricated by electrodeposition into 6 mum thick nanoporous polycarbonate templates with pore sizes from 30 to 100 nm. The aspect ratio of the magnetic segments was varied from 0.02 (disk shaped) to 50 (rod shaped) with 10-250 Ni/Cu bilayers. The M-H curves show that the magnetic response can be classified in terms of three micromagnetic states depending on the diameter and aspect ratio of the nickel segments. Further, we show that the magnetic behavior is dependent on the thickness of the nonmagnetic layer due to the dipolar interactions between the ferromagnetic segments. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.