Out-of-plane magnetic patterning on austenitic stainless steels using plasma nitriding

4 páginas, 3 figuras.-- et al.A correlation between the grain orientation and the out-of-plane magnetic properties of nitrogen-enriched polycrystalline austenitic stainless steel surface is performed. Due to the competition between the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, the exchange and dipolar interactions, and the residual stresses induced by nitriding, the resulting effective magnetic easy-axis can lay along unusual directions. It is also demonstrated that, by choosing an appropriate stainless steel texturing, arrays of ferromagnetic structures with out-of-plane magnetization, embedded in a paramagnetic matrix, can be produced by local plasma nitriding through shadow masks.This work has been partially financed by the Catalan DGR and the Spanish MICINN (Grant Nos. 2009-SGR- 1292, MAT2007-66309-C02, and MAT2007-61629). E.M. thanks the Fund for Scientific Research—Flanders FWO for financial support. M.D.B. was partially supported by an ICREA ACADEMIA award.Peer reviewe