Effects on the structural and magnetic properties of amorphous ribbons of (Co0.94Fe0.06)72.5Si12.5B15 caused by 4 MeV Cl2+ ion irradiation

The use of energetic ion irradiation to modify magnetic materials has attracted increasing interest in recent years. The possibility of patterning surfaces on these materials offers a wide range of potential applications particularly in technologies related to magnetic storage media, sensing devices and electromagnetic shielding materials. In this work, ultrasoft non-magnetostrictive (Co0.94Fe0.06)72.5Si12.5B15 amorphous ribbons, 50 mu m thick and 0.85 mm wide, fabricated by the chilly block melt spinning technique are irradiated, in their amorphous state, by 4 MeV Cl2+ ions with a fluence of 5 x 10(13) cm(-2). The hysteresis properties of both irradiated and non-irradiated samples are characterized by means of a vibrating sample magnetometer while surface magnetic domain structure is observed by Bitter technique. The presence of an induced magnetic anisotropy in irradiated samples is ascribed to the local damage, caused by ion irradiation treatment, which results in modified coercive field and permeability of the samples. X-ray diffraction results are presented to confirm the amorphicity of the structure even after irradiation with ions. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.