Investigation of Laser Direct Writing as a Novel Method of Permalloy Patterning

Abstract

The abilities of laser direct writing have been explored on thin films of permalloy (Ni81Fe19) for range of film thicknesses with two types of substrates for creating micro-scale magnetic structures. The thin films of Permalloy were deposited on both silicon and glass substrates using thermal evaporator with ranging from 5 to 100 nm. The permalloy films were successively patterned using a laser system containing of a pico-second pulsed laser with an 800 ps pulse width and wavelength of 532 nm. A series of magnetic wires were patterned then characterised by Magneto-Optic Kerr Effect system and Scanning Electron Microscopy. The patterned magnetic wires showed good responses to an applied magnetic field. The corresponding coercivities of the patterned magnetic wires were affected by their observed quality. These results can improve the understanding of laser direct writing technique to fabricate the micromagnetic structures for future application as easy, low cost and high throughput technique.