AVS 50th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Wednesday Sessions
       Session MI-WeP

Paper MI-WeP8
Properties of Self-assembled Nanowires Fabricated using Glancing Angle Deposition

Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 11:00 am, Room Hall A-C

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: H. Alouach, University of Alabama
Authors: H. Alouach, University of Alabama
G.J. Mankey, University of Alabama
Correspondent: Click to Email
The spin-dependent transport in nanoscale spin electronic devices, such as Current Perpendicular to the Plane Giant Magnetoresistive (CPP-GMR) devices, is closely dependent on the spin arrangement and physical properties of single wires. Self-assembled Cu and permalloy nanowires were deposited using glancing angle electron beam evaporation technique with and without substrate rotation. Wire texture and crystallographic orientation of such features are known to be strongly dependent on the deposition parameters. We report an unprecedented and efficient method allowing determination of the crystal orientation independent of the geometrical wire and grain orientation. For Cu wires deposited without substrate rotation, the (111) crystal orientation, which corresponds to the close packed low energy surface of Cu, coincides with the geometrical wire orientation. Whereas, for Cu wires deposited with azimuthal rotation of the substrate, the (111)-crystal direction and the wire orientation are different depending on the rotation speed. We compared the validity of the empirical tangent rule@footnote 1@ and the geometrical Tait rule@footnote 2@ which are different equations which describe the relationship between the incident flux angle and the resulting wire orientation. Applications in nanowire circuits will also be discussed. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ J.M. Nieuwenhuizen and H.B Hannstra., Philips Tech. Rev. 27, 87 (1966)@footnote 2@ R.N. Tait, T. Smy and M.J. Brett, Thin Solid Films 226, 196 (1993) .