Article abstract


Nature Materials 3, 533 - 538 (2004)
doi:10.1038/nmat1162

Subject Categories: Magnetic materials | Nanoscale materials

Self-assembled single-crystal ferromagnetic iron nanowires formed by decomposition

L. Mohaddes-Ardabili1, H. Zheng1, S. B. Ogale1,2, B. Hannoyer3, W. Tian4, J. Wang1, S. E. Lofland5, S. R. Shinde2, T. Zhao1, Y. Jia4, L. Salamanca-Riba1, D. G. Schlom4, M. Wuttig1 and R. Ramesh1,6,7


Arrays of perpendicular ferromagnetic nanowires have recently attracted considerable interest for their potential use in many areas of advanced nanotechnology. We report a simple approach to create self-assembled nanowires of alpha-Fe through the decomposition of a suitably chosen perovskite. We illustrate the principle behind this approach using the reaction 2La0.5Sr0.5FeO3 right arrow LaSrFeO4 + Fe + O2 that occurs during the deposition of La0.5Sr0.5FeO3 under reducing conditions. This leads to the spontaneous formation of an array of single-crystalline alpha-Fe nanowires embedded in LaSrFeO4 matrix, which grow perpendicular to the substrate and span the entire film thickness. The diameter and spacing of the nanowires are controlled directly by deposition temperature. The nanowires show uniaxial anisotropy normal to the film plane and magnetization close to that of bulk alpha-Fe. The high magnetization and sizable coercivity of the nanowires make them desirable for high-density data storage and other magnetic-device applications.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
  2. Center for Superconductivity Research, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
  3. Institut des Matériaux- LASTSM, Université de Rouen, BP 12, 76801 SER, France
  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
  5. Department of Physics, Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028, USA
  6. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  7. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Correspondence to: R. Ramesh1,6,7 e-mail: rramesh@uclink.berkeley.edu


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