Effect of magnetic anisotropy on soft magnetization of Fe, Fe50Co50 and Fe70Co30 films

Abstract An FeNiMo underlayer with magnetic anisotropy is shown to readily induce magnetic anisotropy in an overlying FeCoV or Fe50Ni50 layer and suppress the coercive force of these overlayers by about 90–97%. The exact nature of the change in magnetic behavior of the overlayers and the degree of coercive force reduction are confirmed to be dependent on the existence and direction of magnetic anisotropy in those layers upon deposition. The soft magnetization of Fe, Fe50Co50 and Fe70Co30 films with isotropic magnetization processes deposited on an Fe20Ni80 underlayer with magnetic anisotropy is successfully achieved by introducing magnetic anisotropy into the semi-hard magnetic overlayers by oblique-incidence evaporation. The coercive forces of Fe20Ni80/Fe, Fe20Ni80/Fe50Co50 and Fe20Ni80/Fe70Co30 bilayer films are reduced remarkably by this process, and the strength of the anisotropic magnetic field is demonstrated to be readily controllable by this method.