Investigation and Comparison of Optical Properties of Nickel Nanowires and Nickel Thin Film Using He-ne Laser

Ni nanowires are synthesized by template based electrochemical technique. A commercially available filter membrane of alumina anodic oxide (AAO) is used for the fabrication of nanowires. AAO membrane supported on copper substrate yields better hexagonal nanowires. Morphological studies of nanowires are carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The analysis shows the fabrication of vertical 100 nm nanowires. The optical properties using He-Ne laser light have been studied. In order to study the reflection of laser light from the substrate containing Ni nanowires a high resolution camera was employed. These images were further processed using image processing technique. To nullify the effect of the surrounding optical sources, these images were desaturated. The analysis of the results shows that at different angles the reflection of light from substrate containing Ni nanowires shows a regular pattern as compared to Ni thin film. Peak is observed when laser is incident at right angle to the plane of the sample containing Ni nanowires.