STRUCTURE, MORPHOLOGY AND MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF ELECTRODEPOSITED NI FILMS

Abstract

Ni thin films have been electrodeposited on [Formula: see text]-Si (100) substrates for different deposition times at a fixed potential of 2[Formula: see text]V. The as-elaborated films have been characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). From RBS spectra, we have extracted the Ni film thicknesses, [Formula: see text], which ranges from 105 nm to 710 nm. The analysis of XRD spectra shows the existence of a strong [Formula: see text]111[Formula: see text] texture for all film thicknesses. The strain values [Formula: see text] are negative for all Ni films indicating that they are under compressive stresses. The grains size, [Formula: see text], increases to reach a maximum for [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]nm then decreases again with increasing [Formula: see text][Formula: see text](nm). From AFM images, we have shown that the films become progressively smoother with increasing thickness. We have shown that the coercive field measured in parallel geometry, [Formula: see text], increases with increasing thickness.