Structural and magnetic properties of epitaxial Fe and Ni thin films grown on n-AlGaAs(001) using electrodeposition

We report epitaxial growth of body-centered cubic Fe and face-centered cubic Ni thin films on n-type AlGaAs(001) substrates using electrochemical deposition with the cubic axes of Fe oriented parallel to the substrate lattice while the Ni is rotated in-plane 45 degrees. The magnetic properties in either case are dominated by the fourfold crystalline anisotropy, a high remanence, and saturation magnetization values similar to bulk properties. The growth of such ferromagnetic contacts on AlGaAs might find applications in magneto-electronics. (c) 2008 The Electrochemical Society.