Effect of buffer and interlayer on the adhesion and magnetic properties of anisotropic Nd-Fe-B single and multilayer films

Nd-Fe-B films with good perpendicular magnetic anisotropy were obtained by using a Mo film with the thickness of about 40 nm as buffer layer. Large out-of-plane coercivity (H-c perpendicular to = 1182kA/m) and remanent ratio (remanent magnetization/saturation magnetization)(perpendicular to) = 0.99 are obtained by the stratification of the Nd-Fe-B magnetic film in three NdFeB(180 nm)/Mo(5 nm) bilayer sequences using Mo as interlayer. Using a Ni film, with a thickness of about 8 nm, alongside with a Mo film of 40 nm as buffer layer improves the adhesion to substrate and keeps the anisotropic hard magnetic performances of the Nd-Fe-B films unchanged. By increasing the total thickness of the Nd-Fe-B magnetic layer from 540 nm to 1620 nm the coercivity measured at high fields increases from about 1350 kA/m for Nd-Fe-B film with 3 NdFeB(180 nm)/Mo(5 nm) sequences to about 1640 kA/m for Nd-Fe-B film with 9 NdFeB(180 nm)/Mo(5 nm) sequences which can be ascribed to a stronger pinning effect as a result of the increased number of NdFeB/Mo interfaces. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.