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Pulsed laser ablation deposition was used to fabricate Ni films. The structure of the as-deposited films is hexagonal (a ‫ס‬ 0.267 nm and c ‫ס‬ 0.435 nm), and its resistivity is nearly one order of magnitude larger than the resistivity of bulk Ni. No spontaneous magnetization was observed in the as-deposited samples. Annealing above 200°C induced an irreversible structural transformation from the metastable hexagonal phase to the stable face-centered-cubic (fcc) one. Parallel to this transformation, the magnetic moment of the annealed Ni samples increased, and their resistivity decreased. On annealing at 440°C, the structural transformation from the hexagonal-close-packed to the fcc phase was completed, and the magnetic moment, Curie temperature, and electrical resistivity of the fcc Ni films were found similar to the ones observed in bulk Ni. A direct correlation between the volume fraction of the fcc Ni phase in our films and their magnetic moment was established.

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Planar and cylindrical Co thin films have been obtained by pulsed laser ablation. X-ray diffractograms have shown no crystalline structure for the as-deposited samples, while the 450 °C annealed samples exhibit Co fcc crystalline peaks. The Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy has revealed a small increase of the surface roughness for the annealed films. The Hall effect has been used to determine the value of the spontaneous magnetization, Ms, at room temperature; Ms, = 14 kgauss for the as-deposited sample and Ms, = 17.6 kgauss for the 450 °C annealed sample. From transverse magnetooptic Kerr effect, it has been found that the as-deposited samples exhibit magnetic bistability, with a coercive field, Hc, = 6 0e. The annealed samples also show a bistable behavior until the annealing temperature is 450 °C. Besides, it has been observed an increase of Hc up to = 50 Oe, when the annealing temperature increases. The vibrating sample magnetometry has confirmed these results, showing that the magnetization participating in the magnetooptic effect for these low fields is the total spontaneous magnetization of these samples. Moreover, the cylindrical films exhibit magnetoelastic behavior when they are subjected to angular deformation. It has been found that the saturation magnetostriction constant is negative.