Epitaxial growth and magnetic anisotropy of electrodeposited Ni and Co thin films grown on n-type GaAs

The structural and magnetic properties of Ni and Co films electrodeposited directly onto [001[ and [011[] n-GaAs have been studied. Both Ni and Co films grown on (011) n-GaAs are found to show a well-defined uniaxial anisotropy. Anisotropy fields of /spl sim/1000 Oe are found for Ni films, larger than would be expected from simple crystal anisotropy. Films grown on [001] n-GaAs show a small but definite anisotropy which is found to be very dependent on pH.