Effect of deposition time on properties of Ni–Cu alloy films electrodeposited on ito coated glass substrates

Abstract

The structural, magnetic, and surface morphological properties of Ni–Cu films electrodeposited on ITO (indium tin oxide) glass substrates at different deposition times ranging between 2 s and 600 s have been investigated. The structure of the films was studied using X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The XRD results showed that all samples have a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure. From the XRD patterns, it was also found that the crystallographic structure of the films strongly depends on the deposition time. Compositional analysis of Ni–Cu films carried out by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) indicated that the Ni content within the films increases with increasing deposition time and then almost saturates at deposition time of 600 s. The result of the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements revealed that the saturation magnetization increases with increasing Ni content within the film. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to study the topographic properties of Ni–Cu films. It was found that the surface roughness of Ni–Cu alloy films increases with increasing deposition time. Furthermore, the surface texture was found to be isotropic for all films grown at different deposition times.