Magnetic Properties of Iron-Based Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Fe-Zr-X-B (X: Cu, Al) Alloy Films

Thermal stability and magnetic properties of thin films, of a few Fe-based amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys, have been studied. The alloys belong to the class Fe-M-B, whose representatives are: Fe$\text{}_{87}$Zr$\text{}_{4}$Cu$\text{}_{1}$B$\text{}_{8}$, Fe$\text{}_{87}$Zr$\text{}_{7}$B$\text{}_{6}$, and Fe$\text{}_{87}$Zr$\text{}_{7}$Al$\text{}_{1}$B$\text{}_{5}$ and are of particular interest because of their wide variety of magnetic properties. The films were prepared by flash evaporation onto liquid nitrogen cooled substrates. Measurements of the Kerr effect, the Hall effect, and ferromagnetic resonance in the films were carried out as functions of the annealing temperature. It was found that the changes in the coercive field H$\text{}_{c}$, resonance linewidth ΔH$\text{}_{pp}$, effective magnetization M$\text{}_{eff}$, Hall parameters, and resistance were correlated with the structural changes in the studied films.