Magnetic force microscopy of magnetic domain structure in highly ordered Co nanowire arrays

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0009-2614(01)01254-4

Highly ordered anodic alumina oxide (AAO) membranes with a diameter of about 50 nm are prepared by two-step anodization. Cobalt nanowires were obtained by ac electro-deposition of Co²⁺ into the pore of AAO membranes. Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) results show that such a sample has highly perpendicular anisotropy properties. Here, we first use magnetic force microscopy (MFM) to obtain a fine image of magnetic domain structure in Co/AAO film successfully. MFM images show that each as-prepared nanowire in the membrane show single domain structure. The nearest neighbor bits have opposite magnetization. The magnetic moment was aligned in the same direction after the sample was magnetized under a 1 T external field. Due to its high bit density (up to 100Gbits/in.²), such a material may be used as high-density perpendicular recording quantum magnetic disks (QMD).

Full text of DOI:10.1016/S0009-2614(01)01254-4

14 December 2001
Chemical Physics Letters 350 *2001) 51±56
www.elsevier.com/locate/cplett
Magnetic force microscopy of magnetic domain structure
in highly ordered Co nanowire arrays
*
D.H. Qin, M. Lu, H.L. Li
Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, GanSu, Lanzhou 730000, China
Received 7 September 2001; in ®nal form 15 October 2001
Abstract
Highly ordered anodic alumina oxide *AAO) membranes with a diameter of about 50 nm are prepared by two-step
anodization. Cobalt nanowires were obtained by ac electro-deposition of Co2‡ into the pore of AAO membranes.
Vibrating sample magnetometer *VSM) results show that such a sample has highly perpendicular anisotropy properties.
Here, we ®rst use magnetic force microscopy *MFM) to obtain a ®ne image of magnetic domain structure in Co/AAO
®lm successfully. MFM images show that each as-prepared nanowire in the membrane show single domain structure.
The nearest neighbor bits have opposite magnetization. The magnetic moment was aligned in the same direction after
the sample was magnetized under a 1 T external ®eld. Due to its high bit density *up to 100 Gbits=in:2), such a material
may be used as high-density perpendicular recording quantum magnetic disks *QMD). Ó 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.
All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
longitudinal recording media and might be used as
a high-density and low-noise magnetic recording
medium [4]. Such a material was also called
quantized magnetic disks *QMD) [5]. QMDs have
discrete, single-domain magnetic elements uni-
formly embedded in a non-magnetic disk. Many
investigations [6±8] have been undertaken on
QMD fabricated by using electron beam lithog-
raphy, nanoimprint lithography and electro-de-
position methods. In such a case, a magnetic
material such as cobalt or nickel was embedded in
a non-magnetic material and each pillar could be
de®ned as a bit. Due to its nanoscale size, each bit
has only two stable states: equal in magnitude but
opposite in direction. Each magnetization direc-
tion of a single-domain element can represent a bit
of binary information, which can be used for high-
Recently, preparing large area nanometer scale
arrays of ferromagnetic nanowire has been the
subject of intensive research [1±3]. Due to its large
aspect ratio, the uniaxial anisotropy of such a
material was very high, which gave such material a
high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This is
very important in providing de®nite magnetic
states in perpendicular recording. Many research
groups suggested that arrays of small magnetic
islands can overcome super-paramagnetic limit
and side track limit which exist in conventional
* Corresponding author. Fax: +86-931-891-1100.
E-mail address: lihl@lzu.edu.cn *H.L. Li).
0009-2614/01/$ - see front matter Ó 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0009-2614*01)01254-4

52
D.H. Qin et al. / Chemical Physics Letters 350 22001) 51±56
density perpendicular recording. White et al. [9]
had stated that QMDs having as many as
400 Gbits=in:2 could be made in the case of 10 nm
diameter dots with 40 nm pitch fabricated using
nanoimprint lithography and lift-o€.
of the electrolyte was maintained at 3.5±4.0, and
then the electrolysis was conducted at 20 °C, 200
Hz, 11 V/ac and using graphite counterelectrodes.
The time used in electro-deposition was 2 min.
Although there are currently substantial re-
search e€orts on magnetic nanowires, there is a
paucity of investigation of magnetic domain
structure in a highly ordered Co/AAO ®lm. Unlike
track etched membranes of polycarbonate or other
membranes, the surface of AAO membranes is
rather rough which make imaging of magnetic
domain structure more dicult. In this Letter, we
will report the preparation of highly ordered AAO
membranes and Co nanowire arrays. A new
method to polish Co/AAO ®lm is also presented.
Additionally, we demonstrate that each nanowire
has a single domain structure and the nearest
neighbor bits have opposite magnetization direc-
tions when the sample is demagnetized. The mag-
netic moment of nanowire was switched to the
same direction when the sample was magnetized
under a 1 T external ®eld.
2.3. Chemical polishing of Co/AAO ®lm for obser-
vation of MFM image
In order to obtain a very ®ne magnetic force
microscopy image *MFM) of Co/AAO, the surface
of the sample should be very smooth in order to
eliminate the topographical information from the
magnetic image. After the sample was prepared, it
was ®xed into a graphite counterelectrode and
dipped into the following solution: 0.1 M H2CrO4,
0.6 M H3PO4 at 25 °C to chemical polish. Then we
take out the sample after 10±20 min and wash with
distilled water several times to eliminate impurities.
2.4. Experiment instrument
The microstructure and magnetism of the
samples used in this work are characterized by
transmission electron microscopy *TEM, Hitachi
600), vibrating sample magnetometer *Japan,
VSM-5s-15) and scanning probing microscopy
*SPM, P47-SPM-MTD, made in Russia), respec-
tively.
2. Experimental
2.1. Preparation of highly ordered AAO membranes
Ordered AAO membranes were prepared by
two-step anodization [10]. An Al sheet ꢀ0:1 Â 15Â
10 mm3† with a purity of 99.9% was ®rst pre-
treated by degreasing, electro-polishing and rins-
ing with distilled water, and then it was anodized
at 15±50 V in 0.3 M H2C2O3 for 10 h at room
temperature. Then the oxide ®lm was dissolved in
0.2 M H2CrO4, 0.4 M H3PO4 at 60 °C. The second
anodization was carried out at the same condition
as the ®rst one, and the anodized time was 30 min.
3. Results and discussion
An AFM micrograph of the surface view po-
rous aluminum in oxalic acid solution at 30 V for
30 min is shown in Fig. 1a. The pore diameter is
estimated to be about 50 nm and pore density is
about 1010±1011 cmÀ2. The diameter and the in-
terval of the pores are based on the applied volt-
age. Adjusting the applied voltage and using
di€erent electrolytes can prepare AAO membranes
with di€erent diameters and lengths. We can con-
®rm that the holes were ideally arranged hexago-
nally within domains of microsize, which were
separated from neighboring aluminum oxide do-
mains with a di€erent orientation of the pore lat-
tice by grain boundaries. Thus, a polycrystalline
pore structure is observed. Shown in Fig. 1b is the
bottom view of porous aluminum after the ®rst
2.2. ac electro-deposition of cobalt
The arrays of cobalt nanowires were fabricated
by ac electro-deposition of an electrolyte contain-
ing the Co2‡ ion using graphite sheets as counter-
electrodes. The solution used in this experiment
had the following composition: CoSO4 Á 7H2O 10
g/l; H3BO4 40 g/l; ascorbic acid 15 g/l. The pH value

D.H. Qin et al. / Chemical Physics Letters 350 22001) 51±56
53
Fig. 1. *a) AFM image of AAO membranes fabricated using two-step anodized process, *b) a bottom view of AAO membranes after it
was anodized the ®rst time and taken o€ from the Al sheet.
anodizing process. It is clear that every aluminum
oxide particle shows a hexagonal structure, which
pre-textures the pore into the pattern structure
after the second anodizing process.
Fig. 2 shows a representative TEM micrograph
of the Co nanowires. Clearly, the Co nanowires
are both very regular and uniform, with an aver-
age diameter of about 40 nm and length ca. 1:6 lm
*aspect ratio of over 40). Studies on the detailed
structure of the wires by electron di€raction pat-
terns also show that each nanowire is made up of
many microcrystals, which may result from the
deposition of Co in a semi-circle during the ac
electro-deposition. Due to its very large aspect
ratio, it is reasonable to consider each Co dot in
our nanowires as a single magnetic domain.
Fig. 3 shows the magnetization loop curves for
the Co/alumina at room temperature *the applied
Fig. 3. Hysteresis loops of Co nanowires in AAO membranes
at room temperature *the applied ®eld was 16 kOe) k with the
magnetic ®eld parallel to the wire; ? with the magnetic ®eld
perpendicular to the wire.
Fig. 2. TEM image of 40 nm diameter and 1:6 lm length Co
nanowire arrays.

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D.H. Qin et al. / Chemical Physics Letters 350 22001) 51±56
®eld was 16 kOe). The squareness *Mr/Ms) is as
high as 0.92 and the coercivity of array is 2000 Oe
when the applied ®eld is parallel to the axis of
nanowire arrays, which suggests that the Co/AAO
has superior perpendicular magnetic characteris-
tics. The magnetic moment of Co dot in the
nanowire was then deduced to be oriented along
the nanowire axis, which is consistent with the
result from other workers [11]. Because the shape
anisotropy of our Co nanowires *aspect of 40) is
much higher than crystal anisotropy, we then can
conclude that the shape anisotropy and interac-
tions dominate the magnetic behavior of our ar-
rays. The easy magnetization direction is along the
long axis of the wire and the hard magnetization
direction is along the short axis.
To obtain the MFM image of Co nanowire
arrays, we examined them using MFM. The
magnetic force images were taken using a lift mode
process. The imaging was done with a two-step lift
mode process, with the ®rst scan being used to
determine the topography, and the second scan
(a)
Fig. 4. *a) TMAFM image of Co/AAO ®lm, *b) MFM image of Co/AAO membranes, *c) MFM image of two neighbor bits. The black
region represents the attractive force between the tip and the sample and the white region represents the repulsive force.

D.H. Qin et al. / Chemical Physics Letters 350 22001) 51±56
55
passing at a ®xed height above the known surface
and recording the magnetic response of the tip,
which eliminates the topographical information
from the magnetic image.
same magnetized direction. In the case of nanowire
arrays, the major features of the ®lm are attributed
to a new interplay between the magnetostatic en-
ergy and exchange energy. In order to reduce the
exchange energy, it favors the alignment of all
magnetic domains in the same direction, forming a
single domain. However, to reduce the magneto-
static energy, it favors breaking the material into
multiple domains to cancel out magnetic poles. In
order to minimize the total energy of Co arrays,
the nearest neighbor bits should have opposite
magnetization energy, and our experiment results
conform to this very well.
As we know, the maximum magnetostatic en-
ergy is proportional to the wire length. When the
wire length becomes so long that the maximum
magnetostatic energy becomes larger than the
exchange energy, the coherent switching can no
longer be maintained and the vortex state may
appear, leading to incoherent switching, which
needs high external ®eld to switch the magnetic
moment of Co nanowire. As we know, the ®eld of
MFM tip is not larger than 50 Oe, much lower
than the switching ®eld of Co nanowire *2000 Oe).
So we cannot use MFM to write information to
such a sample. Fig. 5 shows the MFM image of
Co nanowire after the sample was magnetized at a
1 T external ®eld. Clearly, only black dots can be
seen, which means that almost all the magnetic
moments of the nanowires switch to the same di-
rection. If high enough external ®eld were applied,
information can be written into a Co/AAO ®lm.
TMAFM and MFM images taken simulta-
neously on the same area of Co arrays are shown
in Figs. 4a and b, respectively. The TMAFM im-
age of a 800 Â 700 nm2 section of the Co arrays
shows that the topology of the Co pillars is in-
distinguishable from that of AAO membranes.
The roughness of the surface is 9 nm. The corre-
sponding MFM image, on the other hand, clearly
shows that each bit has a quantized magnetization
and the magnetic image of each pillar of this sec-
tion can be resolved. We suppose that the wire's
shape anisotropy is the primary cause of forming
single domain in the Co nanowires. The number of
south poles *black) is almost the same as that of
north pole *white) in the section researched. Every
single domain is surrounded by several single do-
mains with opposite magnetized direction. Fig. 4c
is a two neighbor bit with opposite magnetized
direction: one is the south pole *black) and the
other is north pole *white), the diameter of which
is about 60 nm. The corresponded recording den-
sity is up to 100 Gbits=in:2 fabricated using AAO
membranes. Due to the defects existing in the
sample, some of the nearest neighbors show the
4. Conclusion
We have prepared highly ordered and high-
density AAO membranes. Co nanowires were
electrodeposited into the pore of the AAO tem-
plate. MFM observation shows that all the as-
fabricated Co nanowires are single domain. After
the sample was magnetized in a 1 T external ®eld,
almost all the moments were reverse to the same
direction, which means that we can read/write in-
formation in such a sample. The corresponding
recording density is up to 100 Gbits=in:2 if a single
domain can represent a binary bit, which is very
attractive in perpendicular recording.
Fig. 5. MFM image of Co/AAO ®lm after the sample was
magnetized at 1 T external ®eld.

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D.H. Qin et al. / Chemical Physics Letters 350 22001) 51±56
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Science Foundation of China. We would like to
express our sincere thanks to Chief Engineer
Guixun Cao of Gansu Instrumental Analysis and
Research Center for the measurement of electron
microscopy.
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