Modification of magnetic properties of metal nanoparticles using nanotemplate approach

We demonstrate a nanotemplate approach by which different metal magnetic nanoparticles (Ni–Co, Ni–Fe and Co–Pt alloy particles) can be fabricated on a polyimide (PI) film. The process relies on the high interfacial energy between deposited metal and the PI film which forces the deposited metal film to preferentially nucleate on the pre-existing Ni seed particles. During subsequent thermal annealing, the deposited metal film coalesced onto the Ni seed particles to form a monolayer of magnetic nanoparticles on the PI film. Furthermore, the deposition/annealing can be repeated to change both size and constituent of the nanoparticles by introducing a different metal film during deposition. Potentially, any metal film can be deposited onto the Ni seed particles provided that the metal does not react with the Ni seed particles to create a monolayer of metal nanoisland structures with desire magnetic properties.