Abstract
The present work reports the study of transcritical state of magnetic anisotropy in FexNi100-x films as a function of film thickness and composition. The transcritical state is a manifestation of weak perpendicular magnetic anisotropy resulting in peculiar hysteresis loop and stripe magnetic domains above a critical thickness of film. Signatures of transcritical state, corroborated by the formation of stripe domains, are observed in the magneto optical Kerr effect(MOKE) data and magnetic force microscopy (MFM) data of FexNi100-x films with ≈ 75 nm thickness for x = 7. The effect of thickness on the formation of transcritical state is studied for Fe9Ni91 films and it is observed that films with thickness ≥ 105 nm exhibit transcritical state. Further a quantitative analysis of magnetic texture is carried out by 57Fe conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) measurements for the thickness variation samples. The CEMS data show a systematic variation in the area ratio of second and third line intensity as a function of thickness corroborating the MOKE data. The films are studied as a function of thermal annealing and it is observed that the transcritical state still preserved for Fe9Ni91 films of higher thickness even after annealing at 300 ∘C.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to Mr. Layant Behra and Ms.Seema for the help during the deposition of the films. Rakhul Raj thank Mr. Anil Gome for the help with X-Ray measurements; Dr. Zainab Hussain and Mr. Akash Surampalli for discussions & Mr. Yogesh Kumar for the help with thermal annealing of the samples. Mr.Mohan Gangrade and Dr. Venkatesh are thanked for MFM measurements.
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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Proceedings of the International Conference on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect (ICAME 2021), 5-10 September 2021, Brasov, Romania
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Raj, R., Kuila, M., Gupta, M. et al. 57Fe Mössbauer and magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) study of transcritical state in permalloy (FexNi100-x) thin films. Hyperfine Interact 242, 30 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-021-01753-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-021-01753-3