Tunable optical and magnetic properties of Ni-doped CuSe nanowires using an anodic aluminum oxide template assisted hydraulic method.

High uniformity of un-doped and Ni-doped CuSe nanowires have been fabricated by smelting the bulk and injecting the molten liquid into the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. The Ni dopant concentration and morphology of CuSe nanowires can be well controlled via preparing the bulk materials and the channel size of the AAO template, respectively. The cathodoluminescence peaks of the un-doped, 0.5 at% and 1.0 at% Ni-doped CuSe nanowires showed a redshift of about 26 nm and 42 nm, respectively, from un-doped CuSe nanowires (579 nm). Furthermore, above room temperature ferromagnetism was observed in 1.0 at% Ni-doped CuSe nanowires at 300 K. The facile injection molding method fabricated nanowires with tunable optical and magnetic properties which could be applied to prepare various nanomaterials for spintronic devices in the future.