Thermally activated growth of magnetically channelized SmCo-based composite nanowires to study structural, morphological and magnetic properties

Abstract

In this work, one-dimensional (1-D) SmCo based magnetic nanocomposites (MNCs) were prepared at different synthesis temperatures, in the range 60–90 °C to thermally activate the ions, in the presence of an external magnetic field of 3750 Gauss. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis detected multiple-phase presence including hcp-Co, cubic-Co, Sm₂Co₁₇, Sm(OH)₃ with relatively larger fraction of Co phases as confirmed through the Rietveld refinement. HR-FESEM images and EDS techniques demonstrated 1-D morphology and the presence of Co, Sm, O as major elements, respectively. Dc-magnetization measurements revealed the prevalence of soft ferromagnetic character in MNCs offering saturation magnetization up to 150 emu/g. Effective magnetic anisotropy was found to be enhanced from 140 kJ/m³ to 170 kJ/m³ with increase in the synthesis temperature attributable to the enhanced thermal kinetics. Effective spin orbit coupling was observed between the magnetic phases leading to the single-phase behavior of the nanocomposites with enhanced magnetic properties.