Growth and control of the microstructure and magnetic properties of sputtered Nd2Fe14B films and multilayers

K. D. Aylesworth, Z. R. Zhao, D. J. Sellmyer, G. C. Hadjipanayis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

The magnetic and structural properties of sputtered films of Nd17 (Fe0.9Co0.1)76B7 (NFB) and multilayers of NFB with Ag and Fe have been examined. The structure of each film was determined by small- and large-angle X-ray diffraction, and the magnetic properties were measured in a room-temperature vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) with a maximum field of 17.1 kOe and cryogenic VSM with a maximum field of 80 kOe. The amount and orientation of the 2 : 14 : 1 phase in the samples were found to depend strongly upon the substrate material and degree of target oxidation. The primary contaminant in most of the samples studied is a fcc phase with a = 5.110 A ̊, tentatively identified as NdO. The direction of the easy axis (axes) of the films can be correlated with the average c-axis orientation of the 2 : 14 : 1 grains, which in turn can be controlled by the application of an external magnetic field during sample annealing and crystallization. Nearly single-phase films can be produced with a maximum room-temperature coercivity of about 6 kOe and a magnetization of about 100 emu/g. Samples containing significant amounts of NdO have coercivities up to 10 kOe, but the magnetization then drops to about 40 emu/g. The magnetic properties of the multilayers also depend stongly upon the individual layer thicknesses.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)48-56
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Volume82
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1989

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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