Magnetic and Crystallographic properties in Fe 1−xGax thin films for applications in nanodevices

GERARDO RAMÍREZ; FLORENCIA MALAMUD; JAVIER GÓMEZ; A. BUTERA; JULIÁN MILANO

Bariloche

Simposio; XXIII Latin American Symposium on Solid State Physics; 2018

The optimization and the diminution of the size ofthe devices is of current interest in the electronic industry.Today, an option for reaching smaller sizes innanodevices could be to control the magnetism by alternativemethods than using magnetic elds. One ofthese possibilities is to make use of the magnetoelasticcoupling in magnetostrictive systems, i.e., to handlethe magnetic properties by mechanical deformation[1]. One of the materials with largest magnetoelasticcoupling is the iron-gallium alloy Fe1􀀀xGax (Galfenol)[2]. Up to now, most of the research was devotedto study the Fe1􀀀xGax in bulk form [3]. However, inorder to be integrated in nanodevices it is importantto study Fe1􀀀xGax when it is grown as thin lms. Dueto the fact that the magnetic behavior of a material isintimately related to its structural properties, it is importantto perform a detailed crystallographic study.In this work several series of Fe1􀀀xGax thin lms werefabricated by the sputtering technique, by varyingthe substrate type (glass, Si, MgO). The determinationof concentration (EDS, RBS), structure (XRD,SEM, AFM) and crystallographic texture was performed,in addition to magnetic measurements (VSM,SQUID, FMR). A strong correlation between the textureof the material and its magnetic anisotropies isobtained. These are important results thinking in acontrolled manipulation of the magnetic properties of Fe1-xGax alloys in future electronic devices.[1] J. Lou, M. Liu, D. Reed, Y. H. Ren, and N. X. Sun,Adv. Mater. 21 (2009) 4711.[2] A. Clark, J. Restor, M. Wun-Fogle, T. Lograsso, andD. Schlagel, IEEE Trans. Magn. 36 (2000) 3238.[3] M. Eddrief, Y. Zheng, S. Hidki, B. R. Salles, J. Milano,V. H. Etgens, and M. Marangolo, Phys. Rev.B 84 (2011)161410.