X-ray diffraction investigation of single-crystal Co nanowires

Structure and morphology of single-crystalline hep Co nanowires fabricated by electrodeposition were investigated in detail by various x-ray diffraction methods. The results confirm that the Co nanowires can be deposited in single crystalline with the same crystal orientation of [100] along the longitudinal axes. The arrays were composed from those nanowires preferentially in [100] direction with very high parallelity, but the [001] axis of the nanowires randomly lies in the array plane. By slightly higher depositing voltage, some twisted deformation could happen in the nanowires with chiral behaviour. A twisted model has been brought forward to explain the experimental results. Magnetization properties measured by superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer at 300K indicated that the twisted lattices in the wire significantly affected the anisotropy of the nanowires due to the magnetoelastic effect, and consequently, the magnetic easy axis can be tuned to the longitudinal direction effectively.