Microstructure and magnetic properties of thermally annealed SmxFe1-x thin films

Abstract

Polycrystalline Sm-Fe thin films were fabricated by annealing the sputter-deposited Sm-Fe thin films. Although the annealing of the as-deposited Sm-Fe film tends to precipitate Fe grains, leading to a non-uniform microstructure and low magnetostriction coefficient, the thermal annealing performed in multiple steps produced a relatively large fraction of SmFe2 with uniform grain size. The Sm-Fe thin film annealed at 400℃, 500℃, and 600℃ for 1 hour at each step produced the highest magnetostriction coefficient of -57 ppm at an applied field of 2.5 KOe.