Effect of the electrodeposition potential on the magnetic properties of FeCoNi films

Abstract

The effect of electrodeposition potential on the magnetic properties of the FeCoNi films has been reported in this paper. The FeCoNi electrodeposition was carried out from sulfate solution using potentiostatic technique. The obtained FeCoNi films were characterized by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). It has been shown that the electrodeposition potential applied during the synthesis process determines the magnetic characteristics of FeCoNi films. The more negative potential is applied, the higher Ni content is in the FeCoNi alloy. At the same time, Co and Fe showed almost similar trend in which the content decreased with an increase in applied potential. The mean crystallite size of FeCoNi films was ranging from 11 nm to 15 nm. VSM evaluation indicated that the FeCoNi film is a ferromagnetic alloy with magnetic anisotropy. The high saturation magnetization of FeCoNi film was ranging from 86 A·m2/kg to 105 A·m2/kg. The film is a soft magnetic material which was revealed by a very low coercivity value in the range of 1.3 kA/m to 3.7 kA/m. Both the saturation magnetization and coercivity values decreased at a more negative electrodeposition potential.