Magneto-plasmonic study of aligned Ni, Co and Ni/Co multilayer in polydimethylsiloxane as magnetic field sensor

• The magneto-optical properties of aligned multilayer nanowires has been investigated.
• We see the sufficient sensitivity in magneto-optical surface plasmon resonance of Ni and Co nanowires.
• The magnetic modulation mechanism in Ni/Co multilayer has been changed by angular modulation.
• The magnetization modulation of the excitation angle accompanying the SPP wave vector modulation takes place in each nanodisk of multilayer.

We report the magneto-optical properties of aligned cobalt, Nickel and nickel/ Cobalt multilayer nanowires embedded in polydimethylsiloxane matrix. The NWs prepared by electrodeposition method in anodic alumina template and then dispersed in ethanol and placed in a heater to evaporate the ethanol and finally dispersed in polydimethylsiloxane matrix to reach to the composite. The used external magnetic field arranges the nanowires and our aligned nanowires were investigated by magneto-optical surface plasmon resonance techniques in two easy and hard axis configurations. Our results show the sufficient sensitivity in magneto-optical surface plasmon resonance of Nickel and cobalt arrays nanowires and because the different modulation mechanism in Ni and Co nanodisks, in Ni/Co multilayer we see the magnetization modulation of the excitation angle in accordance with magnetic field modulation of the SPP wave vector in each nanodisk. Finally, we show that the Ni/Co multilayer aligned nanowires can be used as efficient magnetic field sensor.