IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 48, NO.

4, APRIL 2012 1605

Structural Peculiarities and Magnetic Properties

of FeNi Films and FeNi/Ti-Based Magnetic Nanostructures
N. Villar Alzola , G. V. Kurlyandskaya , Fellow, IEEE, A. Larrañaga , and A. V. Svalov
Departamento de Electricidad y Electrónica, Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao, Spain
Department of Magnetism and Magnetic Nanomaterials, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia
SGIker, Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), Bilbao, Spain

films and /Ti-based nanostructures were prepared by rf-sputtering. The thicknesses of FeNi samples were below
and above the critical thickness of the transition into “transcritical” state which controls perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and there-
fore the low coercivity and magnetic softness. FeNi/Ti-based magnetic nanostructures were designed with focus on high-frequency ap-
plications. Their structure was studied by X-ray diffraction. The magnetic properties and magnetic domains were investigated by mag-
neto-optical Kerr effect and Bitter technique. The increase of the grain size was observed with an increase of the total thickness of the
films. It was shown that nanostructures have the lowest coercivity and interesting struc-
tural features which can be responsible for the improvement of their magnetic properties.
Index Terms—Magnetic anisotropy, magnetic domains, magnetic nanostructures, permalloy films.

I. INTRODUCTION In this work, films and /Ti-based nanos-

tructures were prepared by rf-sputtering technique and their

I N RECENT years, there has been an increasing interest

in the development of magnetic thin films with control-
lable properties for such applications as magnetic inductors,
transducers, recording media, magnetoelectronic devices, and
magnetic sensors [1]–[3]. One of the most convenient materials
for well-controlled thin films deposition is permalloy
with close to zero magnetostriction and high saturation magneti-
zation [4], [5]. Magnetic inductors and giant magnetoimpedance
(MI)-based magnetic sensors with thin film-based sensitive ele-
ments require the order of the micron thickness of the FeNi film
for obtaining desired properties [5]–[7]. One of the problems to
achieve a magnetic softness at a high thickness is well-known
transition in thick permaloy films in a “transcritical” state with
appearance of out of plane magnetization component, high coer-
civity, and stripe magnetic domains [2], [4], [7]–[9]. The thick-
ness of the transition into a “transcritical” state depends on sev-
eral technological parameters, like Ar pressure during sputtering
process, and it can vary in a rather wide interval of about 20 to
250 nm [4], [9]. The strategy therefore was to use a magnetic
FeNi-based multilayers , where M is a non-magnetic
separating layer and x is a number of the layers in the multilay-
ered structure [5], [7], [10]. The influence of the thickness of the
FeNi layer in the multilayers on MI or influence of the type of
non-magnetic separating layers were not systematically studied
yet. One can mention FeNi/Cu/FeNi [10], [5], or
[7] multilayers. It was considered that mag-
netic softness in such and similar structures was in part provided
by interactions between the magnetic layers [11]. At the same
time, no special studies were done with respect to the structural
state of FeNi MI multilayered nanostructures.
Manuscript received July 30, 2011; accepted October 12, 2011. Date of
current version March 23, 2012. Corresponding author: G. V. Kurlyandskaya
(e-mail: galina@we.lc.ehu.es).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2011.2172781
structure, magnetic properties, and magnetic domains were
comparatively analyzed with focus on the possibility to obtain
magnetically soft material with well-defined transverse mag-
netic anisotropy and increased thickness.
II. EXRERIMENTAL
films and /Ti-based nanostructured mul-
tilayers were prepared by rf-sputtering technique using a
target and glass substrates. The background pressure
was . The deposition pressure of argon of
was selected on the basis of previous studies
[9]. A constant magnetic field of 250 Oe was applied parallel
to the film plane during deposition in order to induce a well-de-
fined uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. Table I describes selected
properties of all prepared nanostructures. Their thicknesses
were selected aiming to investigate the films with the thickness
below, close to, and above the critical thickness for the “trans-
critical” state transition. The thicknesses of the magnetic layers
in the multilayeres were selected to be equal to the thicknesses
of the single layered FeNi films.
The microstructure was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD)
using a PHILIPS X’PERT PRO automatic diffractometer op-
erating at 40 kV and 40 mA, in theta-theta configuration, sec-
ondary monochromator with Cu-Ka radiation ,
and a PIXcel solid state detector. Data were collected from 15 to
( and time per step of 600 s) at room
temperature. PANalytical X’Pert High Score program was used
for identification and Miller indexing of all observed maxima.
The information from broadened XRD lines was used to esti-
mate the average size of coherent diffraction domains by using
the Scherrer approach [12].
The in-plane hysteresis loops both in an easy magnetization
axis (ED), corresponding to the direction of the external field
applied during the deposition and the hard magnetization axis
(HD) were measured by means of the magneto-optic Kerr effect

0018-9464/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE

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TABLE I
SELECTED PROPERTIES OF MAGNETIC NANOSTRUCTURES
Fig. 1. X-ray diffraction spectra for FeNi-based structures (Table I). All iden-
tified Bragg positions are also listed in Table I. Inset shows maxima used for
average grain size calculation.
(MOKE). The magnetic domains were studied in remanence by
standard Bitter technique [13].
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 1 shows XRD spectra of all samples listed in Table I. The
grain size of the FeNi films slightly increases with the thickness
being of order of 12 nm in all cases. For multilayers, the average
size is about twice higher being of order of 25 nm.
Fig. 1 shows that S5 sample is characterized by very intensive
maximum at position. It can be due to the preferential
orientation of the (111) planes of FeNi or (220) planes of Ti.
Careful analysis of the intensity of the diffraction maxima
(Fig. 1, Table I) shows that both FeNi and Ti have these
preferential orientations. In all cases, the FeNi cubic phase is
detected with typical cell parameter of 3.52 . Most interesting
results were obtained for S5 multilayer in which both cubic and
hexagonal Ti phases were present as well as (FeNi)Ti cubic
phase with smaller value of cell parameter of 2.975 (Fig. 2).
The appearance of the last phase is not surprising for sputtered
multilayers. Most probably, it is due to the existence of some
interdiffusion. There might be also some interdiffusion in the
S5 multilayer. However, due to the small volume fraction
of this phase, it cannot be detected in the X-ray diffraction
patterns.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 48, NO. 4, APRIL 2012
Fig. 2. X-ray diffraction pattern for S5 multilayer (see also Table I).
Fig. 3 shows MOKE hysteresis loops of all magnetic nanos-
tructures. Single layered S1 and S2 films and S4 and S5 mul-
tilayers are very soft ferromagnets with well-defined induced
magnetic anisotropy with an anisotropy field of about 3 Oe and
coercivity of order of 1 Oe. S3 sample, as be to expect [9], [10],
is in “transcritical” state having a sizeable perpendicular mag-
netic anisotropy component. It is characterized by the absence of
the in-plane induced magnetic anisotropy and MOKE hysteresis
loop constituted by two magnetization phases: abrupt magneti-
zation reversal at fields close to the coercive field, and a linear
approach to saturation. The thickness of S3 FeNi film is equal
to the total thickness of magnetic layers in S5 multilayer. De-
spite of very complex multiphase structural state, S5 multilayer
is characterized by the smallest coercivity of 0.5 Oe and
most high value of the anisotropy field .
Magnetic domain features studied in the remanence state
(Fig. 4) are in accordance with MOKE measurements: in S1,
S2, S3, and S5 samples, both main and closure magnetic do-
mains are typical of soft magnetic films with in plane magnetic
anisotropy (ED corresponds to the direction of the magnetic
field applied during the film deposition).
In S3 case, observations with Bitter technique do not reveal
magnetic domains because they are stripe domains of much
smaller size, characteristic for a “transcritical” state [2], [4].
It is worth to mention that in the S1 sample, we indeed ob-
serve the typical charge cross-tie type domain walls of very thin
permalloy films with out of plane magnetization vector [13] in
VILLAR ALZOLA et al.: STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES AND MAGNETIC PROPERTIES 1607

Fig. 3. Magnetic nanostructures and magnetooptical hysteresis loops

measured in the easy magnetization (ED) and hard magnetization (HD) Fig. 4. Magnetic domains revealed by Bitter technique for selected FeNi
directions in plane of the samples: S1-FeNi(50 nm); S2-FeNi(200 nanostructures (see also Table I). Top part of each photo corresponds to
nm); S3- FeNi(400 nm); S4-FeNi(200 nm)/Ti(6 nm)/FeNi(200 nm); the sample edge. Dashed circles show unusual magnetic domain features
. characteristic only for S5 sample.
the vicinity of both main and closure domains. Fig. 3 shows an neither in FeNi films nor in FeNi/Ti-based multilayers with rela-
example of unusual magnetic domain features, which appeared tively thick FeNi layers [14] and might be an indicator of the ex-
1608
istence of additional interlayer interactions in mul-
tilayers with relatively thin FeNi layers.
Ti in the present study was selected for non-magnetic
separating layers as material which previously was found in
combination with FeNi thick layers to provide very smooth
interfaces [7]. At the same time, the existence of interlayer
mixing and strong texture of the Ti causing an increase of the
FeNi texturing can play both positive and negative role for
high-frequency properties of FeNi/Ti multilayers. It is known
that the (111) texture helps in the formation of the perpen-
dicular anisotropy in FeNi films. This is due to the fact that
in fcc crystal of FeNi alloys, the direction is the easy
magnetization axis [9], [15]. Therefore, Ti separating layers on
one hand allow to increase the total thickness of
nanostructures preventing the transition into a “transcritical”
state. On the other hand, their presence can be seen as a factor
leading to a decrease of the critical thickness of the transition
into a “transcritical” state due to strong texturing of the Ti
spacers for each FeNi layer.
IV. CONCLUSION
FeNi and FeNi/Ti-based nanostructures were prepared by
rf-sputtering. The thicknesses of the FeNi samples were below,
close to, and above the critical thickness of the transition into
a “transcritical” state. Comparative analysis of the structure,
magnetic properties, and magnetic domains can be useful
for the design of the magnetic nanostructures with focus on
high-frequency applications. The increase of the grain size was
observed with an increase of the total thickness of the films.
It was shown that
nanostructures have the lowest coercivity of about 0.5 Oe and
interesting structural features which can be responsible for the
improvement of their magnetic properties.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by SAIOTEK MAGNOSEN and
UFI11/53 grants of the Basque Country Government and
UPV-EHU. Selected measurements were done in UPV-EHU
SGIKER Services. The authors would like to thank I. Orue for
excellent technical support. The research was made possible
in part by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian
Federation (Contract 16.552.11.7020).
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 48, NO. 4, APRIL 2012
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