Effect of magnetic layer thickness on magnetic properties of Ce-Fe-B thin films

Abstract

The Ce2Fe14B thin films with a notable out-of-plane c-axis texture were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering on a Ta buffer layer. The morphological and magnetic properties were investigated. The thickness of the magnetic layer had a dramatic effect on the formation of Ce2Fe14B phase, and excellent magnetic properties (Hci ≈ 4.25 kOe, Mr/Ms ≈ 0.81) were observed for the Ce-Fe-B film with the thickness dm = 200 nm. The results of the hysteresis loops for Ce-Fe-B film (dm = 200 nm) at various measured temperatures show that a decoupling between the hard and the soft phases is observed at low temperatures, which is due to the regions with quite low anisotropy provided by the α-Fe. Moreover, it is clear that significantly various magnetization behaviors between the films with dm = 200 and 300 nm were observed with a similar trend due to the existence of the α-Fe soft phase.