The effect of different chemical compositions caused by the variation of deposition potential on properties of Ni-Co films

The magnetic and microstructural properties of Ni-Co films electrodeposited at different cathode potentials were investigated. The compositional analysis revealed that the Ni content increases from 13 at.% to 44 at.% in the films with increasing deposition potential. Magnetic measurements showed that the saturation magnetization, Ms of the films decreased with increase of Ni content as the deposition potential increased. Ms values changed between 1160 emu/cm3 and 841 emu/cm3. The X-ray diffraction revealed that the crystalline structure of the films is a mixture of the predominant face-centered cubic (fcc) and hexagonal closed packed. However, the mixture phase turns to the fcc because of increasing Ni content up to 44 at.% at the highest (−1.9 V) potential by enhancing the intensity of reflections from the fcc phase. The changes observed in the magnetic and microstructural properties were ascribed to the changes observed in the chemical composition caused by the applied different deposition potentials.

Research highlights▶ In the present work, the characterizations of Ni-Co films prepared at different potentials were performed and the results of investigation were reported. The magnetic and structural properties were observed to have a strong dependence on the Ni:Co ratio that was controlled by the deposition potential.