Structure and magnetic properties of sputtered hard/soft multilayer magnets

Authors

W. Liu, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science and International Centre for Materials Physics, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People's Republic of China
Z.D. Zhang, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science and International Centre for Materials Physics, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People's Republic of China
J. Ping Liu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
B.Z. Cui, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science and International Center for Materials Physics, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People's Republic of China
X.K. Sun, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science and International Center for Materials Physics, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People's Republic of China
J. Zhou, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

5-15-2003

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Applied Physics 93, 8131-8133 (2003). ©2003 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

The films with HM = (Pr,Dy)(Fe,Co,Nb,B) _5.5 and SM=Fe, FeCo were prepared by sputtering and subsequent heat treatment. The coercivity of Ti-buffered (Pr,Dy)(Fe,Co,Nb,B) _5.5 single-layer film with 320 nm thickness is as large as 18.8 kOe at room temperature. X-ray diffraction results reveal that the Pr₂Fe₁₄B-type phase is randomly oriented in almost all the multilayer films. For the multilayers of Ti(30 nm)/[HM(16 nm)Fe(x nm)]×20/Ti(30 nm)/Si(substrate), the remanence increases and the coercivity decreases with the addition of Fe content, in comparison with the results of the single-layer film and the maximum energy product of 14.8 MGOe is obtained at x = 3.0. A noticeable shoulder on the demagnetization curve is observed at low temperatures. When Fe₆₅Co₃₅ is used as the SM component rather than Fe, similar results are found. The enhancement of the magnetic properties in the nanocomposite multilayer films is explained by means of the exchange coupling between the SM and/or HM nanograins of the intra- and interlayers.