Effect of Substrate Temperature on Magnetic Properties of Electroplated 82Ni–15Fe–3W Alloy Films

Nanocrystalline soft magnetic Ni-Fe-W alloy films are electroplated by applying different substrate temperatures. In this paper, the effect of substrate temperatures on the magnetic properties is investigated. The morphology and the composition of the plated layers are determined by atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy detector, respectively. Structure and average grain size are characterized by the X-ray diffraction analysis. Magnetic properties of the plated alloy are determined by using the vibrating sample magnetometer. The results show that the coercivity and relative permeability of the plated films can be optimized by changing the substrate temperature. The lowest coercivity value of 257 A/m and the high relative permeability value of 487 are obtained at the substrate temperature value of 5 °C. Plated alloy films have face centered cubic structure. In addition, an increase in the substrate temperature results in an increase in the strain and roughness.