Multilayer Microwires: Tailoring Magnetic Behavior by Sputtering and Electroplating

Abstract A novel technique for preparing multilayer microwires with controlled magnetic behavior has been developed. This technique involves combining sputtering and electroplating procedures to deposit (magnetic or non‐magnetic) metallic nano‐ and microlayers onto glass‐coated amorphous magnetic microwires. A suitable choice of magnetostrictive amorphous metallic nucleus, together with the specific stresses induced by the deposited layers, allows the tailoring of specific magnetic behavior. In this way, the preparation of multilayer microwires characterized either by square‐shaped hysteretic loops (typical of magnetically bistable microwires with longitudinal easy axes), or by nearly non‐hysteretic loops (for those microwires with a circumferential magnetization easy axes), can be achieved.