A comparative study of the influence of the deposition technique (electrodeposition versus sputtering) on the properties of nanostructured Fe₇₀Pd₃₀ films

Abstract

Sputtering and electrodeposition are among the most widespread techniques for metallic thin film deposition. Since these techniques operate under different principles, the resulting films typically show different microstructures even when the chemical composition is kept fixed. In this work, films of Fe 70 Pd 30 were produced in a thickness range between 30 and 600 nm, using both electrodeposition and sputtering. The electrodeposited films were deposited under potentiostatic regime from an ammonia sulfosalicylic acid-based aqueous solution. Meanwhile, the sputtered films were deposited from a composite target in radio frequency regime. Both approaches were proven to yield high quality and homogenous films. However, their crystallographic structure was different. Although all films were polycrystalline and Fe and Pd formed a solid solution with a body-centered cubic structure, a palladium hydride phase was additionally detected in the electrodeposited films. The occurrence of this phase induced internal stress in the films, thereby influencing their magnetic properties. In particular, the thickest electrodeposited Fe 70 Pd 30 films showed out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy, whereas the magnetization easy axis lied in the film plane for all the sputtered films. The domain pattern of the electrodeposited films was investigated by magnetic force microscopy. Finally, nanoindentation studies highlighted the high quality of both the sputtered and electrodeposited films, the former exhibiting higher reduced Young's modulus and Berkovich hardness values.

Effect of the Substrate Crystallinity on Morphological and Magnetic Properties of Fe70Pd30 Nanoparticles Obtained by the Solid-State Dewetting

“…A body-centered cubic (BCC) structure is found in both cases. This evidence indicates the formation of a supersaturated solid solution of α-(Fe,Pd) as predicted by the FePd phase diagram and previously reported in the literature [47,48]. Considering the relative intensity of the diffraction peaks, no preferential orientation is observed.…”

Flexible Screen-Printed Electrochemical Sensors Functionalized with Electrodeposited Copper for Nitrate Detection in Water

“… 25 − 27 In comparison with other deposition methods, such as e-beam evaporation, sputtering, and pulsed laser deposition, electrodeposition does not need expensive equipment for ultrahigh vacuum and high temperature. 28 Moreover, Cu can be easily electrodeposited in the form of nanoclusters or nanoparticles on top of different bulky electrodes, such as glassy carbon, graphite felt, and disk electrodes, as reported, for example, by Bagheri et al, 10 Lu et al, 29 and Stortini et al, 30 respectively. Additionally, we decided to use screen printing, a fabrication technique that enables the development of flexible, disposable, and cheap electrochemical sensors.…”

Structural, Wetting and Magnetic Properties of Sputtered Fe70Pd30 Thin Film with Nanostructured Surface Induced by Dealloying Process

“…The chemical composition of the FePd binary alloy system strongly influences its structure and magnetic properties allowing the use in a variety of applications [ 21 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. These properties include magnetic shape memory effect for the Fe 70 Pd 30 alloys [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for Fe 50 Pd 50 [ 32 , 33 ], as well as hydrogen absorption characteristics for the palladium-rich FePd material [ 34 , 35 ], catalytic activities [ 36 , 37 ] and SERS devices [ 26 ].…”