Magnetic field assisting DC electrodeposition: general methods for high-performance Ni nanowire array fabrication.

One-dimensional magnetic nanowires are generally thought to show fine axial magnetism for their special high aspect ratio of the shape. However, the magnetic nanowire arrays fabricated by DC electrodeposition in template pores always show a low squareness in parallel to the nanowire direction. We developed two general and simple methods to improve the squareness of the as-fabricated Ni nanowire arrays parallel to the nanowire direction. The nanowires are found to be polycrystalline. The magnetism of the nanowire is also analyzed based on the microstructure.