Magnetic properties of nanostructured Fe-Co alloys

A series of Fe-Co alloys were produced at the atomic scale, onto 15 nm Cu buffer layers, using pulsed-current deposition. The relationship between saturation magnetization, M-s and lattice constant, a has been investigated. The effects of increasing stacking number (bilayer number) on the values of M-s and a have been examined. The alloys showed a maximum room temperature M-s of 240 emu/g at 25 at: % Co. A study to the room temperature magnetic and microstructure analysis revealed that the increase in saturation magnetization strongly correlates with the lattice constant of the Fe-Co alloy. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4795267]