Development of Magnetically Soft Amorphous Microwires for Technological Applications

Amorphous magnetic microwires can be suitable for a variety of technological applications due to their excellent magnetic softness and giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect. Several approaches for optimization of soft magnetic properties and GMI effect of magnetic microwires covered with an insulating, flexible, and biocompatible glass coating with tunable magnetic properties are overviewed. The high GMI effect and soft magnetic properties, achieved even in as-prepared Co-rich microwires with a vanishing magnetostriction coefficient, can be further improved by appropriate heat treatment (including stress-annealing and Joule heating). Although as-prepared Fe-rich amorphous microwires exhibit low GMI ratio and rectangular hysteresis loops, stress-annealing, Joule heating, and combined stress-annealed followed by conventional furnace annealing can substantially improve the GMI effect (by more than an order of magnitude).

Electronic Surveillance and Security Applications of Magnetic Microwires

Applications in security and electronic surveillance require a combination of excellent magnetic softness with good mechanical and anticorrosive properties and low dimensionality. We overviewed the feasibility of using glass-coated microwires for electronic article surveillance and security applications, as well as different routes of tuning the magnetic properties of individual microwires or microwire arrays, making them quite attractive for electronic article surveillance and security applications. We provide the routes for tuning the hysteresis loops’ nonlinearity by the magnetostatic interaction between the microwires in the arrays of different types of amorphous microwires. The presence of neighboring microwire (either Fe- or Co-based) significantly affects the hysteresis loop of the whole microwires array. In a microwires array containing magnetically bistable microwires, we observed splitting of the initially rectangular hysteresis loop with a number of Barkhausen jumps correlated with the number of magnetically bistable microwires. Essentially, nonlinear and irregular hysteresis loops have been observed in mixed arrays containing Fe- and Co-rich microwires. The obtained nonlinearity in hysteresis loops allowed to increase the harmonics and tune their magnetic field dependencies. On the other hand, several routes allowing to tune the switching field by either postprocessing or modifying the magnetoelastic anisotropy have been reviewed. Nonlinear hysteresis loops have been also observed upon devitrification of amorphous microwires. Semihard magnetic microwires have been obtained by annealing of Fe–Pt–Si microwires. The observed unique combination of magnetic properties together with thin dimensions and excellent mechanical and anticorrosive properties provide excellent perspectives for the use of glass-coated microwires for security and electronic surveillance applications.

Magnetic Microwires with Unique Combination of Magnetic Properties Suitable for Various Magnetic Sensor Applications

There is a pressing demand to improve the performance of cost-effective soft magnetic materials for use in high performance sensors and devices. Giant Magneto-impedance effect (GMI), or fast single domain wall (DW) propagation can be observed in properly processed magnetic microwires. In this paper we have identified the routes to obtain microwires with unique combination of magnetic properties allowing observation of fast and single DW propagation and GMI effect in the same microwire. By modifying the annealing conditions, we have found the appropriate regimes allowing achievement of the highest GMI ratio and the fastest DW dynamics. The observed experimental results are discussed considering the radial distribution of magnetic anisotropy and the correlation of GMI effect, and DW dynamics with bulk and surface magnetization processes. Studies of both Fe- and Co-rich microwires, using the magneto-optical Kerr effect, MOKE, provide information on the magnetic structure in the outer shell of microwires. We have demonstrated the existence of the spiral helical structure in both studied microwires. At the same time, torsion mechanical stresses induce helical bistability in the same microwires, which allow us to consider these microwires as materials suitable for sensors based on the large Barkhausen jump.

Review of Domain Wall Dynamics Engineering in Magnetic Microwires

The influence of magnetic anisotropy, post-processing conditions, and defects on the domain wall (DW) dynamics of amorphous and nanocrystalline Fe-, Ni-, and Co-rich microwires with spontaneous and annealing-induced magnetic bistability has been thoroughly analyzed, with an emphasis placed on the influence of magnetoelastic, induced and magnetocrystalline anisotropies. Minimizing magnetoelastic anisotropy, either by the selection of a chemical composition with a low magnetostriction coefficient or by heat treatment, is an appropriate route for DW dynamics optimization in magnetic microwires. Stress-annealing allows further improvement of DW velocity and hence is a promising method for optimization of DW dynamics in magnetic microwires. The origin of current-driven DW propagation in annealing-induced magnetic bistability is attributed to magnetostatic interaction of outer domain shell with transverse magnetization orientation and inner axially magnetized core. The beneficial influence of the stress-annealing on DW dynamics has been explained considering that it allows increasing of the volume of outer domain shell with transverse magnetization orientation at the expense of decreasing the radius of inner axially magnetized core. Such transverse magnetic anisotropy can similarly affect the DW dynamics as the applied transverse magnetic field and hence is beneficial for DW dynamics optimization. Stress-annealing allows designing the magnetic anisotropy distribution more favorable for the DW dynamics improvement. Results on DW dynamics in various families of nanocrystalline microwires are provided. The role of saturation magnetization on DW mobility improvement is discussed. The DW shape, its correlation with the magnetic anisotropy constant and the microwire diameter, as well as manipulation of the DW shape by induced magnetic anisotropy are discussed. The engineering of DW propagation through local stress-annealing and DW collision is demonstrated.