Magnetic properties of soft layer/FePt-MgO exchange coupled composite perpendicular recording media

The magnetic properties of exchange coupled composite （ECC） media that are composed of perpendicular magnetic recording media FePt MgO and two kinds of soft layers have been studied by using an x-ray diffractometer, a polar Kerr magneto-optical system （PMOKE） and a vibrating sample magnetometer （VSM）. The results show that ECC media can reduce the coercivities of perpendicular magnetic recording media FePt-MgO. The ECC media with granular-type soft layers have weaker exchange couplings between magnetic grains and the magnetization process, for ECC media of this kind mainly follow the Stoner Wohlfarth model.

Nanocrystalline exchange-coupled Pr-Fe-B permanent magnets

Nanocomposite Pr2Fe14B/α-Fe permanent magnets were prepared by melt spinning and subsequent crystallizahon of Pr8Fe86B6, amorphous Precursnors. The microstructure is a two-phase nanocomposite of Pr2 Fe14 B and softmagnetic α-Fe with an average size of 30nm. X-ray diffration, Thermomagnetic analysis and TEM analy0sis indicatetha amorphous Pr8Fe86B6, alloy crystallizes through the process of Am→Am→Am'+α-Fe→Pr2Fe23B3+α-Fe-Pr2Fe14B+α-FeThe highest value of remanence (Br), cocreivity (Hci) and maximum energy Product ((BH)max) of the nanocrystallinealloys are 1.10T, 340 kA/m and 110 kJ/m3 respechvely, exhibihng remarkable remanence enhancement. The effect ofannaling temperature and time on the microstructure and magnetic properties was also studied. The resultS show thatappropriate annealing temperature and time are important for obtaining the optimal microstructure and the bestmagnetic properties.

Effect of annealing time on the exchange coupling interactions and microstruc-ture of nanocomposite Pr_(7.5)Dy_1Fe_(71)Co_(15)Nb_1B_(4.5) ribbons

The influence of annealing time on the magnetic properties and microstructure of nanocomposite Pr7.5Dy1Fe71Co15Nb1B4.5 ribbons was systematically investigated by the methods of vibrating sample magnetometer （VSM）, X-ray diffraction （XRD） and high resolution transmission electron microscopy （HRTEM）. Interaction domains derived from strong exchange coupling interactions between hard and soft magnetic grains were imaged using magnetic force microscopy （MFM）. Maximum remanence, intrinsic coercivity, and maximum energy product values were obtained in the ribbons annealed at 700℃ for 15 min, which were composed of Pr2（Fe, Co）14B, α-（Fe, Co）, and slight Pr2（Fe, CO）17 phases. Although Jr, Hci, and （Bn）max decreased gradually with further increase of annealing time, it is emphasized that comparatively high Jr and Hci and （BH）max were obtained in a wide annealing time period of 15 to 360 min. The shape of initial magnetization curves and hysteresis loops change as a function of annealing time, indicating different magnetization reversal routes, which can be fully explained by the corresponding microstructure.

Effect of chromium interlayer on magnetic exchange coupling of SmCo/Cr/TbFeCo multilayer thin films

A series of SmCo/Cr/TbFeCo multilayer thin films with perpendicular anisotropy were prepared by RF- magnetron sputtering system, and the effects of Cr interlayer thickness on magnetic properties and interlayer exchange coupling were investigated. It was found that the magnetic properties varied with the thickness of Cr interlayer, especially the values of saturation magnetization Ms and the coercivity Hc fluctuated periodically with the thickness of Cr interlayer. STM images revealed that the variation of coercivity Hc was attributed to the microstructure change of SmCo layer influenced by Cr interlayer, and the variation of Ms was related to interlayer exchange coupling.

The structure dependence of exchange bias in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers

The structure dependence of exchange bias in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic （FM/AF） bilayers has been investigated in detail by extending Slonczewski＇s ＇proximity magnetism＇ idea. Here three important parameters are discussed for FM/AF bilayers, i.e. interracial bilinear exchange coupling J1, interracial biquadratic （spin-flop） exchange coupling J2 and antiferromagnetic layer thickness tAF. The results show that both the occurrence and the variety of the exchange bias strongly depend on the above parameters. More importantly, the small spin-flop exchange coupling may result in an exchange bias without the interracial bilinear exchange coupling. However, in general, the spin-flop exchange coupling cannot result in the exchange bias. The corresponding critical parameters in which the exchange bias will occur or approach saturation are also presented.

The rotational anisotropies in the ferromagnetism/antiferromagnetism 1/ antiferromagnetism 2 exchange bias structures

The rotational anisotropies in the exchange bias structures of ferromagnetism/antiferromagnetism 1/antiferro- magnetism 2 are studied in this paper. Based on the model, in which the antiferromagnetism is treated with an Ising mean field theory and the rotational anisotropy is assumed to be related to the field created by the moment induced on the antiferromagnetic layer next to the ferromagnetic layer, we can explain why in experiments for ferromag- netism （FM）/antiferromagntism 1 （AFM1）/antiferromagnetism 2 （AFM2） systems the thickness-dependent rotational anisotropy value is non-monotonic, i.e. it reaches a minimum for this system at a specific thickness of the first anti- ferromagnetic layer and exhibits oscillatory behaviour. In addition, we find that the temperature-dependent rotational anisotropy value is in good agreement with the experimental result.

Effect of exchange coupling on magnetic property in Sm–Co/α-Fe layered system

The hysteresis loops as well as the spin distributions of Sm-Co/a-Fe bilayers have been investigated by both three- dimensional （3D） and one-dimensional （1D） micromagnetic calculations, focusing on the effect of the interface exchange coupling under various soft layer thicknesses ts. The exchange coupling coefficient Alas between the hard and soft ,layers varies from 1.8 x10-6 erg/cm to 0.45 x 10-6 erg/cm, while the soft layer thickness increases from 2 nm to 10 nm. As the exchange coupling decreases, the squareness of the loop gradually deteriorates, both pinning and coercive fields rise up monotonically, and the nucleation field goes down. On the other hand, an increment of the soft layer thickness leads to a significant drop of the nucleation field, the deterioration of the hysteresis loop squareness, and an increase of the remanence. The simulated loops based on the 3D and 1D methods are consistent with each other and in good agreement with the measured loops for Sm-Co/a-Fe multilayers.

Exchange-coupling-induced fourfold magnetic anisotropy in CoFeB/FeRh bilayer grown on SrTiO_(3)(001)

Exchange coupling across the interface between a ferromagnetic(FM)layer and an antiferromagnetic(AFM)or another FM layer may induce a unidirectional magnetic anisotropy and/or a uniaxial magnetic anisotropy,which has been extensively studied due to the important application in magnetic materials and devices.In this work,we observed a fourfold magnetic anisotropy in amorphous Co Fe B layer when exchange coupling to an adjacent Fe Rh layer which is epitaxially grown on an SrTiO_(3)(001)substrate.As the temperature rises from 300 K to 400 K,Fe Rh film undergoes a phase transition from AFM to FM phase,the induced fourfold magnetic anisotropy in the Co Fe B layer switches the orientation from the Fe Rh<110>to Fe Rh<100>directions and the strength is obviously reduced.In addition,the effective magnetic damping as well as the two-magnon scattering of the Co Fe B/Fe Rh bilayer also remarkably increase with the occurrence of magnetic phase transition of Fe Rh.No exchange bias is observed in the bilayer even when Fe Rh is in the nominal AFM state,which is probably because the residual FM Fe Rh moments located at the interface can well separate the exchange coupling between the below pinned Fe Rh moments and the Co Fe B moments.

Temperature-dependent interlayer exchange coupling strength in synthetic antiferromagnetic [Pt/Co]_2/Ru/[Co/Pt]_4 multilayers

In this work, we experimentally investigated the thermal stability of the interlayer exchange coupling field(Hex) and strength(-Jiec) in synthetic antiferromagnetic(SAF) structure of [Pt(0.6)/Co(0.6)]2/Ru(tRu)/[Co(0.6)/Pt(0.6)]4multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy. Depending on the thickness of the spacing ruthenium(Ru) layer, the observed interlayer exchange coupling can be either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic. The Hexwere studied by measuring the magnetization hysteresis loops in the temperature range from 100 K to 700 K as well as the theoretical calculation of the-Jiec. It is found that the interlayer coupling in the multilayers is very sensitive to the thickness of Ru and temperature. The Hexexhibits either a linear or a non-linear dependence on the temperature for different thickness of Ru. Furthermore, our SAF multilayers show a high thermal stability even up to 600 K(Hex= 3.19 kOe,-Jiec= 1.97 erg/cm~2 for tRu=0.6 nm, the unit 1 Oe = 79.5775 A·m-1), which was higher than the previous studies.

Large coercivity and unconventional exchange coupling in manganese-oxide-coated manganese gallium nanoparticles

The microstructures and magnetic properties of nanoparticles, each composed of an antiferromagnetic （AFM） manganese-oxide shell and a ferromagnetic-like core of manganese-gallium （MnGa） compounds, are studied. The coreshell structure is confirmed by transmission electron microscope （TEM）. The ferromagnetic-like core contains three kinds of MnGa binary compounds, i.e., ferrimagnetic （FI） DO22-type MnaGa, ferromagnetic （FM） Mn8Gas, and AFM DO19-type Mn3Ga, of which the first two correspond respectively to a hard magnetic phase and to a soft one. Decoupling effect between these two phases is found at low temperature, which weakens gradually with increasing temperature and disappears above 200 K. The exchange bias （EB） effect is observed simultaneously, which is caused by the exchange coupling between the AFM shell and FM-like core. A large coercivity of 6.96 kOe （1Oe = 79.5775 A·m^-1） and a maximum EB value of 0.45 kOe are achieved at 300 K and 200 K respectively.

Theoretical Studies on the Spin Exchange Interaction in Copper(II) Complexes Coordinated with Nitronyl Nitroxide

Nitronyl nitroxide radical 1, NIT (4, 4, 5, 5-tetramethyl-4, 5-dihydro-1H-imidazolyl-1- oxyl-3-oxide) and copper(II) chloride complexes with nitronyl nitroxide 2, [Cu(NITPh)2Cl2] (NITPh = 2-phenyl-4, 4, 5, 5-tetramethyl-imidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide) were studied with density functional theory (DFT). The magnetic orbital analysis reveals that the antiferromagnetic coupling for complex 2 is due to the antibonding s*-orbital overlap between 22x-yd(Cu) and p* (NO) orbitals. Also, spin population and atomic charge distribution analysis suggest that for AFS of complex 2 the antiferromagnetic coupling between the radical ligands and the copper(II) ion originates from the spin delocalization induced by the a electron transfer from p*(NO) to 22x-yd(Cu) orbital.

Surface states modulated exchange interaction in Bi2Se3/thulium iron garnet heterostructures

We investigate the modulation of magnetic anisotropy of thulium iron garnet(TmIG)films by interfaced Bi2Se3 thin films.High quality epitaxial growth of Bi2Se3 films has been achieved by molecular beam epitaxy on TmIG films.By the method of ferromagnetic resonance,we find that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy(PMA)of TmIG can be greatly strengthened by the adjacent Bi2Se3 layer.Moreover,the competition between topological surface states and thickness dependent bulk states of Bi2Se3 gives rise to the modulation of PMA of the Bi2Se3/TmIG heterostructures.The interfacial interaction can be attributed to the enhanced exchange coupling between Fe^3+ions of TmIG mediated by topological surface electrons of Bi2Se3.

Effect of Ga addition on the magnetic properties and microstructure of nanocrystalline Nd_(12.3)Fe_(81.7)B_(6.0) ribbons

Nd 12.3 Fe 81.7 x Ga x B 6.0 （x = 0-1.8） ribbons were prepared by melt spinning at 22 m/s and subsequent annealing treatment. The influences of Ga addition and annealing conditions on the magnetic properties and microstructure of the nanocrystalline alloys were systematically investigated. After being annealed at 620℃ for 20 min, the J r and H ci increased from 0.85 T and 582.6 kA/m for Ga-free sample to 0.97 T and 734.6 kA/m for the x = 0.9 sample, respectively. The （BH） max for the x = 0.9 sample increased by about 40% from 96.3 to 135.5 kJ/m 3 compared with that of the Ga-free one. The significant improvement of magnetic properties originated from the refinement of grains in the samples by introducing Ga, which led to a stronger exchange coupling between the neighboring grains in comparison with that in Ga-free samples. The microstructure and magnetic properties of the samples depended strongly on annealing parameters, while the sensitivity of micro-structure to annealing conditions could be significantly suppressed by the addition of Ga element.

Effects of Pr on the structure and magnetic properties of FePt alloys

The effects of Pr on the structure and magnetic properties of PrxFe60.5-xPt39.5 alloys （x = 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5） were investigated. X-ray diffraction data indicated that the phase transition temperature of FePt based alloys from disordered face-centered-cubic to ordered face-centered-tetragonal cubic decreases with the increase in Pr concentration. Pr plays the role of a grain refiner and it can enhance the exchange coupling between soft magnetic phase and hard magnetic phase. The results indicate that the replacement of Fe by Pr can significantly improve the remanence and coercivity of the Fe60.5Pt39.5 alloy. These results can be explained on the basis of phase transformation and microstructure. Both the remanence ratio and coercivity of the FePt based alloy as a function of the Pr content are increased by the optimum addition of 0.5 at.% Pr.

Chemically synthesizing exchange-coupled SmCo_(5)/Sm_(2)Co_(17) nanocomposites

A new strategy to chemically synthesize exchange-coupled SmCo_(5)/Sm_(2) Co_(17) nanocomposites by in situ decomposition of SmCox(5<x<8.5)is reported in this work.Our synthesis starts with the fabrication of Co/Sm_(2) O_(3)(Sm to Co atomic ratio of Sn/Co=1:4.2),which can be reduced into 40-nm SmCo_(5) single crystal nanoparticles by Ca under the protection of CaO,showing a high coercivity of 2.85 T and saturation magnetization(Ms)of 0.0671 A·m^(2)·g^(-1).By changing the Sm/Co to 1:4.5,1:4.8 and 1:5.2,SmCo_(5)/Sm_(2) Co_(17) nanocomposites with different proportions were acquired using the same process.Owing to the in situ decomposition of SmCo_(x) intermediate,the small size(both of their size less than 10 nm)and uniform phase distribution were achieved in our nanocomposites.Thus,the as-prepared nanocomposites display a strong exchange-coupling interaction.As a consequence,SMCo_(5)/Sm_(2)Co_(17)(Sm/Co=1:5.2)exhibits a coercivity of 1.23 T and enhanced M7 T(magnetization at 7 T)of 0.0812 A·m^(2)·g^(-1),increasing by 21%than pure SmCo_(5).Our synthesis provides a new protocol to prepare exchange-coupled high-performance nanocomposites.

Discrepancy of the magnetic behaviors and crystalline structure on the Co/FeMn and FeMn/Co interfaces with ultrathin Pt spacer

The exchange coupling at the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic （FM/AFM） interface is influenced by both the magnetic structure and the crystalline micro-structure. Co/FeMn/Co thin films with 0.4 nm Pt spacer layer inserted into the Co/FeMn and FeMn/Co interface respectively were deposited by means of magnetron sputtering. The two interfaces upon and beneath the FeMn layer show distinct behaviors before and after the Pt spacer inserted. There is a remarkable shrink of the interracial uncompensated spins within the FeMn bottom interracial monolayers, whereas a relaxation of the pinning strength of the FeMn interfacial spins along the out-of-plane direction occurs at the top in- terface. XRD analysis indicates the Pt layer upon the FeMn layer forms an fcc （002） texture, implying the magnetic discrepancy between the top and bottom FeMn interfaces has crystalline structural origins.

Phase Transformation and Magnetic Properties of Nd_xFe_(60.5-x)Pt_(39.5)(x=0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5) Alloys

The effect of Nd addition on the structure, phase transformation and magnetic properties of FePt based alloys was investigated. The results indicated that the transition temperature from ordered FCT to disordered FCC phase decreased with increasing Nd concentration, but for alloys quenched rapidly from the γ phase region into ice-water, it increased with increasing Nd. The Nd element not only effectively reduced the grain size of the ordered phase but also decreased the degree of the ordered phase and refined the grains of the FCC matrix phase. The remanence ratio and coereivity of the FePt based alloy as a function of the Nd content had maximum values, respectively.

Magnetic and magnetostrictive properties of amorphous TbFe/FeAl multilayer thin film

Exchange coupling multilayer thin films, which combined giant magnetostriction and soft magnetic properties, were of growing interest for applications. The TbFe/FeAl multilayer thin films were prepared by dc magnetron sputtering onto glass substrates. The microstructure, magnetic, and magnetostrictive properties of TbFe/FeAl multilayer thin film was investigated at different annealing temperatures. The results indicated that the soft magnetic and magnetostrictive properties for TbFe/FeAlmultilayer thin film compared with TbFe single layer film were obviously improved./n comparison with the intrinsic coercivity JHo of 59.2 kA/m for TbFe single layer film, the intrinsic coercivity jHc for TbFe/FeAl multilayer thin films rapidly dropped to 29.6 kA/m. After optimal annealing （350 ℃×60 min）, magnetic properties of Hs=96 kA/m and jHc=16 kA/m were obtained, and magnetostrictive coefficient could reach to 574×10^-6 under an external magnetic field of 400 kA·m^-1 for the TbFe/FeA1 multilayer thin film.

XPS Studies of Chemical States of NiO/NiFe Interface

Ta/NTiO/NiFe/Ta multilayers were prepared by radio frequency reactive and dc magnetron sputtering. The exchange coupling field between NiO and NiFe reached 9.6 x 10(3) A/m. The compositions and chemical states at the interface region of NiO/NiFe were studied using the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and peak decomposition technique, The results show that there are two thermodynamically favorable reactions at NiO/NiFe interface: NiO+Fe = Ni + FeO and 3NiO+2Fe =3 Ni+Fe2O3. The thickness of the chemical reaction area estimated by angle-resolved XPS was about 1-1.5 nm. These interface reaction products appear magnetic defects, and the exchange coupling field H-ex and the coereivity H-c of NiO/NiFe are affected by these defects.

Effect of Interstitial Atom Nitrogen on Properties of RE_2Fe_(17) Compounds

The electronic structure and atomic magnetic moments of clusters NdFe_6, NdFe_6N_3 and Fe_8 with a dumbbell atom-pair in rare earth-transition element compounds Nd_2Fe_(17)N_ x ( x =0, 3) were studied by spin-polarized MS-Xα method. The results are as follows: There are three negative exchange couplings between Fe(c) and Fe(f) atoms in Nd_2Fe_(17), which occur at their odd parity orbitals. Compared to the results of α-Fe calculated by the MS-Xα method, the low Curie temperature of compounds RE_2Fe_(17) can be explained satisfactorily. (2) There is only one weaker negative exchange coupling orbital leaving in between Fe(c) and Fe(f) sites in Nd_2Fe_(17)N_3. These results may be helpful for understanding the effect of interstitial atom M (M=N, H or C) in Fe_2Fe_(17)M_ x on Curie temperature. The other key factors affecting the Fe-Fe exchange coupling in Fe_2Fe_(17) compounds were also discussed.