Magnetic anisotropy induced by patterning in (1 1 0) MBE-grown ternary Laves phase TbDyFe 2 films

Abstract

Ternary rare-earth intermetallic Laves phase compounds Tb 0.1Dy 0.9Fe 2, grown by MBE, were characterized by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and magneto-optical Kerr effect magnetometry (MOKE). Striped arrays with 5 μm-width along an in-plane easy-axis [−1,1,0] direction were defined by a UV direct write system in 400 nm-thick (1 1 0) epitaxial Tb 0.1Dy 0.9Fe 2 films. An additional shape anisotropy of 2.7 × 10 5 erg/cm 3 in magnitude is induced. MOKE measurements reveal pronounced enhancement of the switching field along [−1,1,0] direction. However, the switching field along the hard-axis [0 0 1] direction is unchanged as the intrinsic anisotropy along the [0 0 1] direction is an order of magnitude larger than the induced one. The results demonstrate a possibility of engineering the magnetostriction-to-anisotropy ratio by patterning in epitaxial TbDyFe 2 magnetostrictive materials.