Electrodeposition and composition modulation of Co–Ni(Cu)/Cu multilayers

Co–Ni(Cu)/Cu multilayers were electrodeposited from a citrate electrolyte in a flow channel cell using a potentiostatic dual-pulse plating method under controlled hydrodynamic condition and the composition of the multilayers was modulated by changing various deposition parameters. The flow channel cell was found to be an effective tool to plate nanostructured multilayers with good reproducibility. The variation of the electrolyte concentration was found to be a more suitable way for composition modulation in the ferromagnetic layers. Multilayers with less copper impurity in the ferromagnetic layer could be deposited from an electrolyte of near neutral pH. In anomalous co-deposition of nickel and cobalt, the cobalt deposition current was found to increase with the increase of nickel ion concentration in the electrolyte and reached an optimum value where co-deposition occurred at the highest rate.