Vopson research is a blog associated with Dr Vopson's Physics research activities at the University of Portsmouth, School of Mathematics and Physics, Faculty of Technology.
Development of flexible Ni80Fe20 magnetic nano-thin films
M.M. Vopson, J. Naylor, T. Saengow, E.G. Rogers, S. Lepadatu, Y.K. Fetisov
Flexible magnetic Ni80Fe20
thin films with excellent adhesion, mechanical and magnetic properties
have been fabricated using magnetron plasma deposition. We demonstrate
that flexible Ni80Fe20 thin films maintain their non-flexible magnetic properties when the films are over 60 nm
thick. However, when their thickness is reduced, the flexible thin
films display significant increase in their magnetic coercive field
compared to identical films coated on a solid Silicon substrate. For a
15 nm flexible Ni80Fe20 film coated onto 110 µm
Polyvinylidene fluoride polymer substrate, we achieved a remarkable 355%
increase in the magnetic coercive field relative to the same film
deposited onto a Si substrate. Experimental evidence, backed by
micro-magnetic modelling, indicates that the increase in the coercive
fields is related to the larger roughness texture of the flexible
substrates. This effect essentially transforms soft Ni80Fe20
permalloy thin films into medium/hard magnetic films allowing not only
mechanical flexibility of the structure, but also fine tuning of their
magnetic properties.
