Fine Smoothing of Conductive Substrate for Permalloy Layer Electroplating

In this paper we study the influence of the roughness of the copper substrate on the magnetic properties of the FeNi film we electroplate onto it. The roughness and the thickness of the copper substrate are reduced by electropolishing in orthophosphoric acid: we show how to select the working point, which gives the highest smoothness, avoiding defects due to gas evolution. Finally we show how a smoother substrate contributes to reducing the coercivity of the magnetic film grown on it.