Soft-magnetic properties and structure of Fe/CoNbZr multilayers

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Abstract
The magnetic and structural properties of ion beam sputtered Fe/CoNbZr multilayers were studied as a function of the CoNbZr and Fe layer thickness. Good soft-magnetic properties (coercivity 1000) are obtained only when the Fe grains are small, which is the case for multilayers with Fe layer thicknesses below 10 nm and CoNbZr layer thicknesses above 4 nm. Thick CoNbZr layers (>4 nm) are amorphous and repeated nucleation of Fe grains is observed. When the CoNbZr layers are too thin (<3 nm) they are crystalline and do not interrupt the Fe grain growth. The resulting columnar growth of Fe throughout the total film thickness leads then to a drastic decrease of permeability and increase of coercivity.