Structural and Magnetic Properties of Ni0.8Fe0.2/Ti Nanoscale Multilayers.

Ricardo López Antón,Juan A González,Galina V Kurlyandskaya,Juan P Andrés,Andrei V Svalov

doi:10.3390/nano8100780

Ricardo López Antón, Juan A González + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8100780

Copy DOI

Abstract

The influence of the thickness of the Ni0.8Fe0.2 (Permalloy, Py) layers on the structural and magnetic properties of magnetron sputtered Py/Ti multilayers was studied. The thickness of the Py layers was varied in the interval of 8 to 30 Å. X-ray reflectivity scans evidence the existence of a well-defined layered structure in all the samples considered, but also the presence of a complex intermixed interface. The shape of both the temperature dependence of magnetization and the hysteresis loops of the multilayered structures depends strongly on Py thickness. Magnetic and reflectivity measurements were comparatively analyzed in order to better understand the structure of the samples, and specifically, their interfaces. In particular, the presence of small superparamagnetic Py at the interfaces of the samples, especially evident in the samples with the thinnest Py layers, seems confirmed by the magnetic measurements, agreeing well with the reflectivity results.

Highlights

The synthesis of magnetic materials in the form of thin films and nanoparticles has been investigated for various applications due to their unique magnetic properties [1,2,3]
If the thickness of the Py layer is less than a certain value, the layers of Py/Ti multilayers can have a granular structure, i.e., they can consist on Py nanogranules embedded in a non-magnetic Ti matrix or a three-component FeNiTi phase
We study and correlate structural and magnetic properties of Py/Ti nanoscale multilayers with different thicknesses of the magnetic component aiming to evaluate the interface contributions

Summary

Introduction

The synthesis of magnetic materials in the form of thin films and nanoparticles has been investigated for various applications due to their unique magnetic properties [1,2,3]. Soft films of Permalloy (Py) were the topic of special attention of researchers for many years, first of all, due to their wide use in micro- and nanoelectronics [4,5]. These films are the main functional material of a wide variety of devices for hard disk drives, magnetic recording devices, electronic navigation systems, position detection, object motion, and magnetic biosensors [6,7,8], as well as new promising spintronic devices (e.g., film storage devices information with high density based on magnetic vortices [9,10]). Knowing what is really happening at the interface between the layers of Py and Ti is important both from the point of view of GMI sensors for biodetection [8] and as a way of creating special ferromagnetic films for integrated radio-frequency passive components in radio-frequency/complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology [17], or tuning the dynamics of magnetization in magnetic multilayers [18]

Methods

Results

Conclusion