Magnetic properties and microstructure of Sm-Co/α-Fe nanocomposite thick film-magnets composed of multi-layers over 700 layers

We synthesized Sm-Co/alpha-Fe nanocomposite film-magnets, approximately 10 mu m in thickness, composed of 780 layers by the pulse laser deposition method. Transmission electron microscopic observations revealed that the synthesized film is composed of Sm-Co and alpha-Fe layers with the well-controlled alpha-Fe thickness of approximately 10-20 nm, which is suitable one predicted by the micromagnetic simulation. In spite of the enhanced interlayer diffusion of Fe and Co by annealing for crystallization, the (BH)(max) value of 100 kJ/m(3) was obtained at the averaged compositions of Sm/(Sm+Co) = 0.16 and Fe/(Sm+Co+Fe) = 0.47. The alpha-Fe fraction for obtaining the highest (BH)(max) value was smaller than that expected from the micromagnetic simulation. Although the annealing for crystallization lay the easy direction of magnetization in the plane, the film is not expected to have strong crystallographic texture. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.