Magnetic properties of [FeCo-O/NiZn-Ferrite]n
bi-magnetic phase nanocomposite multilayer films
B.B. Yuan, X.L. Liu, L.S. Wang*, D.L. Peng*
Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy
Materials, College of Materials
Xiamen University
Xiamen, China
*wangls@xmu.edu.cn; dlpeng@xmu.edu.cn
Abstract—[FeCo-O/NiZn-Ferrite]n multilayer films with
different thicknesses of FeCo-O and NiZn-Ferrite layer were
fabricated by alternant magnetron sputtering at room
temperature with no external magnetic field applied. The effect
of monolayer thickness on magnetic and high frequency
characteristics was systematically investigated. The multilayer
thin film could acquire excellent high-frequency properties and
high resistivity when the thickness of FeCo-O layer and NiZn-
Ferrite layer was 2nm and 2.1nm respectively, which makes these
multilayer films great candidates as magnetic core for micro-
inductor.
Keywords—multilayer thin films; soft magnetic property; high-
frequency magnetic properties; magnetic core
I. INTRODUCTION
With the increasing need of miniaturization and integration
of electronic devices, great efforts have been invested in the
magnetic films applied in GHz frequency range [1]. The high-
frequency soft magnetic films should simultaneously have high
saturation magnetization Ms (to improve the initial
permeability), high permeability μ and appropriate large in-
plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy fields Hk (to regulate the
ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency) [2]. Considering
the application environment, the films must also possessed
high resistivity ρ to reduce the eddy-current loss [3]. However,
the high ρ of the magnetic films, which was the most important
characteristic for high-frequency application, always realized
base on the expense of magnetic metal volume fraction by
compositing non-magnetic oxide which would reduce the high-
frequency magnetic performance [4]. It was well known that
NiZn-ferrites possess good electrical insulating property and
FeCo alloy possess very high Ms. Therefore, the use of NiZn-
ferrite as an insulator phase and FeCo alloy as magnetic metal
phase to construct FeCo/NiZn-ferrite bi-magnetic phase
multilayer films are expected to obtain higher saturation
magnetization and resistivity than general multilayer films.
In this paper, a series of [FeCo-O/NiZn-Ferrite]n bi-
magnetic phase multilayer thin films with different FeCo-O
layer thicknesses (tM) and NiZn-Ferrite layer thicknesses (tI)
were fabricated. The influence of monolayer thickness on static
magnetic properties, high frequency properties and electrical
properties of [FeCo-O/NiZn-Ferrite]n bi-magnetic phase
J.W. Wei, J.B. Wang*
Key Laboratory for Magnetism and Magnetic Materials of
MOE
Lanzhou University
Lanzhou, China
* wangjb@lzu.edu.cn
multilayer thin films were systematically investigated. The
results indicated that the Hk, fr and ρ are highly correlated to the
tM and tI. The good high-frequency soft magnetic properties can
be obtained by regulating the thicknesses of magnetic layers
and insulating layers of the multilayer films.
II. EXPERIMENTAL DETALLS
A. Samples Preparation
[FeCo-O/NiZn-Ferrite]n bi-magnetic phase multilayer thin
films with different thicknesses of FeCo-O layers and NiZn-
Ferrite layers were deposited on (100)-oriented silicon
substrates and glass substrates under room temperature by
alternant magnetron sputtering. High-purity Fe65Co35 alloy
target (3 inch) and Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 ceramic target (3 inch) were
used. Before deposition, the chamber was pumped to a base
pressure of about 9×10-4 Pa. During sputtering process, the Ar
and O2 gas flow rates were maintained as 20 and 0.2 sccm
respectively, and the total gas pressure was kept at 0.4 Pa. The
substrate holder was set to rotate at a speed of 24 rpm. The
sputtering was carried out using a DC power of 75 W for FeCo
target and RF power of 200 W for NiZn-ferrite target. The
monolayer thickness was controlled by adjusting the sputtering
time using the switched baffles operated by a computer. The
number of cycles (a FeCo-O layer and a NiZn-Ferrite layer
composed a cycle) was fixed as n =20 in this work.
B. Characteration
The structures of the thin films were analyzed by the X-ray
diffraction (XRD, Rigaku Ultima IV). The thicknesses of the
films were measured by the surface profile-meter (Dektak-III)
and verified by cross-section SEM images. The resistivity of
the samples was measured at room temperature using a D41-
11A/ZM four-probe resistance tester. The static magnetic
properties were characterized by the vibrating sample
magnetometer (VSM, Lakeshore 7404) and the Hk were
determined by the magnetic hysteresis loop. The microwave
permeability of the samples was measured at frequencies from
100MHz to 9GHz by a vector network analyzer. A vector
network analyzer with a shorted microstrip transmission-line
perturbation method was adopted to measure the microwave
permeability at frequencies from 100 MHz to 9 GHz.
 III. RESULTS AND DISSCUSSION
According to our preview studided, the thickness of
magnetic layer and nonmagnetic insulating layer influence can
modulate the high-frequency magnetic properties of the general
multilayer films [5]. The interaction between adjacent magnetic
metal layers will be different when the insulating interlayer was
also magnetic materials. In order to explain the high-frequency
magnetic properties in bi-magnetic phase multilayer films, the
influence of monolayer thickness were systematically studied.
First, we fixed the FeCo-O layer thicknss at 2.0 nm and
varied the NiZn-Ferrite thickness from 0.6 to 2.1 nm. Fig. 1(a)
shows the infulence of NiZn-Ferrite layer thickness on the ρ
and Ms. It was clear that the resitivity monotonously increased
wihle the Ms gradually decrased with increaing the NiZn-
Ferrite layer thickness. The ρ reached up to 1149 μΩ•cm and
Ms still higher than 0.6 T when tI=2.1 nm. Fig. 1(b) shows the
influence of tI on the fr and Hk of the bi-magnetic phase
multilayer films. Both fr and Hk first increased and then
decreased with increasing the NiZn-Ferrite increased. The fr
reached up to 7 GHz when tI=1.2 nm.
Fig. 1 The influence of NiZn-Ferrite layer thickness on the (a) Ms, ρ and (b) fr,
Hk of the bi-magnetic phase multilayer films
And then, we fixed the NiZn-Ferrite layer thickness at 2.1
nm and varied the tM from 1.1 to 4.1 nm. Fig. 3(a) shows the
infulence of tM on the ρ and Ms. It was clear that the resitivity
monotonously decrased wihle the Ms gradually increased with
increaing the tM. The ρ can still maintined over 1000 μΩ•cm
when tM=2.0 nm. Fig. 2(b) shows the influence of tM on the fr
and Hk of the bi-magnetic phase multilayer films. The Hk of the
films gradually increased with increasing the tM, and all the
samples possessed high fr,. Considering the resistivity and high-
frequency magnetic performance, the bi-magnetic phase
multilayer films obotained excellent properties when tM=2.0
nm and tI=2.1 nm.
Fig. 2 The influence of FeCo-O layer thickness on the (a) Ms, ρ and (b) fr,, Hk of
the bi-magnetic phase multilayer films
Fig. 3 shows the static magnetic hysteresis loops and
frequency dependences permeability spectra of the
representative bi-magnetic phase multilayer film for tM=2.0 nm
and tI=2.1 nm. It can be seen from Fig. 3(a) that the sample
presents an obvious in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. The
M-H loop along the easy axis is almost a rectangle and the
residual magnetization ratio (Mr/Ms) is approximately equal
to1. The corresponding high-frequency permeability spectra of
the film are plotted in Fig. 3(b). The ferromagnetic resonance
(FMR) frequency fr can exceed 5 GHz.
Fig. 3 (a) The static magnetic hysteresis loops and (b) frequency dependences
permeability spectra of the representative bi-magnetic phase multilayer film
IV. CONCLUSION
In this study, a series of [FeCo-O/NiZn-Ferrite]n multilayer
thin films with different separate layer thicknesses of FeCo-O
layer and NiZn-Ferrite layer were fabricated by reactive
magnetron co-sputtering. The effect of thickness of FeCo-O
layer and NiZn-Ferrite layer on magnetic electric and high-
frequency properties of the thin films was systematically
studied. It was found that the high-frequency properties can be
effectively adjusted by the monolayer thickness. When tM=2.0
nm and tI=2.1 nm, the film could acquire excellent integrated
performance (Ms=0.6T, ρ=1124 μΩ•cm, and fr = 5.35 GHz),
which makes this multilayer films great candidates as magnetic
core for micro-inductor.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Basic Research
Program of China (No.2012CB933103), the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Nos.51171158, 51371154,
51571167 and 51301145), the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (No. 20720140547) and the Natural
Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China
(No.2014J05009).
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