In this work, nickel-gold multi-segmented magnetic nanowires were grown by electrodeposition in anodized alumina templates. The templates were fabricated by a two step anodization process of aluminum disks in an aqueous solution of oxalic acid. In this process, ordered pores grew in an alumina oxide layer at the exposed aluminum area. Each disk was electropolished before the anodization process and the features at its surface were characterized to assess the effect on the pore ordering. Nickel Watts and gold cyanide electrolyte baths were prepared to electrodeposit pure nickel and gold in the templates. Both solutions response to a range of externally applied voltages was characterized and a threshold voltage above which deposition occurs is reported. Single nanowires were isolated by chemically dissolving the template and dispersed in ethanol. Devices were fabricated with these isolated nanowires in which gold contacts were deposited to measure the resistance. A current pulse setup was implemented in a magnetoresistance system allowing to send current pulses with amplitude as low as 2nA and 50μs width. Magneto resistance measurement were carried out on the single nanowires devices and the effect of current pulses was studied. It was found that distinct resistance states can be achieved by applying a determined current pulse at a constant applied field and that the initial state can be recovered by removing excess charge from the nanowire. Finally, the effect of annealing the nanowires in an air atmosphere at 150°C for 24 hours is studied showing that the nickel sections oxidize and the gold sections remain unchanged.

Energy enables basic and innovative services to reach a seemingly ever-growing population and when its generation costs are reduced or when its usage is optimized it has the greatest impact on the reduction of poverty. Furthermore, there is a pressing need to decouple energy generation from non-renewable and carbon-heavy sources which has led mayor economies to increase research efforts in these areas. This thesis discusses research on water oxidation using nanostructured iron oxide electrodes and current-induced magnetic domain wall motion in nickel/cobalt bi-segmented nanowires. These two fields may seem disparate at first glance, but are linked by such common theme: materials for energy, and more precisely, materials for energy conversion and economy. The work presented in this document aims also to reflect this theme by using widely available materials like iron and aluminum, and optimizing the methods to produce the final samples using the least resources possible. All samples were prepared by electroplating metals (iron, cobalt and nickel) into anodized alumina templates fabricated inhouse. For water oxidation, iron nanorods were integrated into an electrode and annealed in air, while nickel/cobalt nanowires were isolated and contacted individually to test for spintronics-related effects. Spintronic-based devices aim to reduce energy usage in nowadays microelectronic devices. The nanostructured iron oxide electrode showed its usefulness for water oxidation in a laboratory environment, making it an appropriate complement to other electrodes specially designed for water reduction in a photoelectrochemical cell. This two-electrode design, allows for hydrogen and oxygen to be produced at each electrode and therefore eases their separate collection for, e.g., fuel or fertilizers. On the other hand, this work presents one of the first experimental demonstration of current-induced domain wall motion in soft/hard cylindrical magnetic nanowires at zero applied external magnetic field. These kinds of experiments are expected to be the first of many which will allow researchers in the field to test for spintronic-relevant properties and interactions in cylindrical magnetic nanowires.

The past few decades have witnessed a race towards developing smaller, faster, cheaper and ultra high capacity data storage technologies. In particular, this race has been accelerated due to the emergence of the internet, consumer electronics, big data, cloud based storage and computing technologies. The enormous increase in data is paving the path to a data capacity gap wherein more data than can be stored is generated and existing storage technologies would be unable to bridge this data gap. A novel approach could be to shift away from current two dimensional architectures and onto three dimensional architectures wherein data can be stored vertically aligned on a substrate, thereby decreasing the device footprint. This thesis explores a data storage concept based on vertically aligned cylindrical magnetic nanowires which are promising candidates due to their low fabrication cost, lack of moving parts as well as predicted high operational speed. In the proposed concept, data is stored in magnetic nanowires in the form of magnetic domains or bits which can be moved along the nanowire to write/read heads situated at the bottom/top of the nanowire using spin polarized current. Cylindrical nanowires generally exhibit a single magnetic domain state i.e. a single bit, thus for these cylindrical nanowire to exhibit high density data storage, it is crucial to pack multiple domains within a nanowire. This dissertation demonstrates that by introducing compositional variation i.e. multiple segments along the nanowire, using materials with differing values of magnetization such as cobalt and nickel, it is possible to incorporate multiple domains in a nanowire. Since the fabrication of cylindrical nanowires is a batch process, examining the properties of a single nanowire is a challenging task. This dissertation deals with the fabrication, characterization and manipulation of magnetic domains in individual nanowires. The various properties of are investigated using electrical measurements, magnetic microscopy techniques and micromagnetic simulations. In addition to packing multiple domains in a cylindrical nanowire, this dissertation reports the current assisted motion of domain walls along multisegmented Co/Ni nanowires, which is a fundamental step towards achieving a high density cylindrical nanowire-based data storage device.

D'un point de vu fondamental, la structure micromagnétique d'un point de Bloch est prédite depuis plus de 50 ans, mais représente cependant une singularité topologique dans le cadre de la théorie du micromagnétisme. Par conséquent, une description purement micromagnétique du point deBloch s'avère difficile. Ce manuscrit décrit les outils mathématiques et un ensemble d'algorithmes permettant de combiner un modèle d'Heisenberg classique avec des simulations micromagnétiques sur la base des éléments finis. A l'aide de ces algorithmes, nous pouvonsrigoureusement étudier les propriétés caractéristiques d'un point de Bloch d'une paroi de domaine de type vortex localisée dans un nanofil cylindrique ferromagnétique. Cette thèse décrit le pinning/depinning des points de Bloch au réseau atomique ainsi que les différents modes depropagation détectables pour des parois de domaine sous l'influence d'un champ magnétique externe, qui peut conduire le système à des vitesses supermagnoniques. / The fundamental micromagnetic structure of Bloch points was predicted by micromagnetic theory more than 50 years ago, but represents a topological singularity within the theory of micromagnetism. This complicates a pure micromagnetic description. This thesis describes thenecessary mathematical background and a set of algorithms to combine a classical atomistic Heisenberg model with micromagnetism on the basis of the finite element method. By means of those algorithms the characteristic properties of Bloch points in vortex domain walls inferromagnetic solid cylindrical nanowires can be studied rigorously. ln addition to the pinning/depinning of Bloch points at the atomistic lattice the thesis reports on the different modes of propagation detectable for vortex domain walls in that system under the influence of an externalmagnetic field, which can drive the system of the domain wall and the Bloch point with supermagnonic velocities.