  We present a study of electron-beam evaporated Pd0.4Ni0.6 alloy thin films by
means of ferromagnetic resonance measurements on extended films of varying
thickness and anisotropic magnetoresistance measurements of lithographically
patterned high aspect-ratio ferromagnetic electrodes, respectively. The results
reveal that the direction of the magnetization strongly depends on the
electrode lateral dimensions, transitioning from in-plane magnetization for
extended films to out-of-the-plane magnetization for electrode widths below 2-3
microns, reaching 58 degrees off-plane for 100 nm-wide nanoelectrodes.
