Role of pH and current density in electrodeposited soft magnetic Co-Ni-Fe alloy thin films

The influence of pH and current density on the structural and magnetic behavior of soft magnetic Co-Ni-Fe alloy thin films has been studied. The effect of pH and current density on the compositional, structural, and magnetic properties of the as-obtained films was investigated by EDX (energy dispersive analysis by X-rays), XRD (X-ray diffractometer) and VSM (vibrating sample magnetometer). The EDX results revealed that at the optimized deposition conditions, nickel content was low compared with cobalt and ferrous content. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the deposited films have polycrystalline nature with mixed (fcc-bcc) cubic structure and small crystallite size (<20 nm). The films prepared in optimized conditions exhibit high saturation magnetization (4πMs value above 2T) and low coercivity (below 160 A/m), which may be due to the reduced crystallite size.