Characterizations of Electrodeposited NiCoFe Ternary Alloys: Influence of deposition potential

Microstructural, magnetoresistance and magnetic properties of electrodeposited NiCoFe ternary alloys were investigated in terms of deposition potentials changing from -1.8 to -3.0 V with respect to saturated calomel electrode. The alloys were grown on polycrystalline Titanium substrates. The potentials were obtained from cyclic voltammetry and the current-time transients were also recorded to control the growth of proper alloys. From the structural analysis by X-ray diffraction, all alloys had a face-centred cubic structure. The alloy compositions by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy revealed that the Ni content increases whereas the Co and Fe contents decrease as the deposition potential increase. And, the scanning electron microscope images disclosed that the alloy morphologies changed as the deposition potential changed. All alloys showed anisotropic magnetic resistance and their magnitudes were between 4.5 and 8.7 %. The vibrating sample magnetometer measurements showed that the saturation magnetization of the alloys increases from 748 to 786 emu/cm(3) and coercivity decreases from 28.7 to 25.9 Oe as the deposition potential increases. The easy axis of magnetization was found to be parallel to the film plane for all alloys. The variations in magnetic and magnetoresistive properties related to the microstructure were attributed to the compositional changes caused by the deposition potential.