The use of stress for the control of magnetic anisotropy in amorphous FeSiBC thin films: a magneto-optic study

Magnetostrictive FeSiBC amorphous thin films based on the METGLAS^® 2605SC composition have been produced by RF magnetron sputtering. The magnetic properties were investigated using the magneto-optical Kerr effect, with both point hysteresis measurements and domain imaging. Significant in-plane anisotropy is observed in the as-grown samples, which was attributed to the residual field from the magnetron sputter source. The effects of various treatments on the samples were investigated, including the use of forming fields, stress, and thermal processing. The deliberate introduction of stress into these materials is found to allow excellent control of both the direction and magnitude of magnetic anisotropy, and can also be used as a novel method for the absolute measurement of magnetostriction. The treatments are evaluated for their potential to control anisotropy in magnetostrictive device applications.