Tailoring the magnetic anisotropy in amorphous FeZr-based thin films on flexible and solid substrates

In this thesis the magnetic properties of novel amorphous magnetic materials grown on a flexible substrate of polyethylene naphthalate and a silicon wafer have been analyzed and characterized. The analyzed films are two films of amorphous Cobalt-Iron-Zirconium(Co36Fe53Zr11 & Co37Fe55Zr8) grown on the flexible substrate and two films of amorphous (Fe89Zr11) doped with boron (B). The B is implanted in a lattice of rings with inner diameter of 10 μm and outer diameter of 20 μm and with the distance between the center of the rings of either 50 μm or 25 μm. The composition in the doped region is Fe80Zr10B10. Various magneto-optical Kerr effect(MOKE) magnetometers are used to measure hysteresis loops of the samples and a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is used to find the volume magnetization of the flexible samples. To measure the anisotropy in the flexible films a series of sample holders has been developed to measure various amount of stress using the same sample in magneto-optical magnetometers. The stress induced uniaxial anisotropy is found by measuring hysteresis loops of the flexible samples while bending them with different curvatures. The induced anisotropy is related to the magnetostriction and the magnetostriction constants is estimated for the two flexible samples by assuming values for Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio. The estimated values for the magnetostriction constant are found to vary with the amount of Zr and to be in the correct order of magnitude for magnetic films. The implanted B rings with the short distance of 25 μm between the center showed to have some interaction between the rings. This conclusion is drawn after analyzing first order reversal curves of the samples and looking at the domains under a MOKE-microscope. At very low temperatures the (unimplanted) FeZr matrix is ferromagnetic and seem to have an anti-ferromagnetic coupling with the B rings. At room temperature the rings are still ferromagnetic and they couple to each other