The influence of thickness on magnetic properties of nanostructured nickel thin films obtained by GLAD technique

Abstract In this work, nickel (Ni) thin films were deposited by electron beam evaporation of Ni using Glancing Angle Deposition technique onto the glass substrate with the thickness varied from 25 nm to 150 nm. Characterization of obtained Ni films was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and by Magneto-Optical Kerr effect measurements (MOKE). The effect of thickness on structural, chemical and magnetic properties of nickel films has been studied. Observed changes in microstructure were correlated with the variation in magnetic parameters obtained by MOKE measurements. It was found that for thinner Ni films, the enhancement of coercivity is due to the surface roughness of Ni films, while for thicker films the observed asymmetry of coercivity is due to the mechanism of column size growth.