Objectives

Objective 1 - The study of hard and soft magnetic multilayers

Task 1

Understanding the effects of the Ar pressure and substrate on the hard magnetic phase is one of the main goals of the first task. Varying these two very important parameters one can trigger the complexity of the Sm-Co phase. Deposition of hard magnetic thin films will be performed by Magnetron Sputtering.

Task2

At this stage an intermixing of experimental and theoretical work will be performed. As a first step, the correlation between the structure and magnetism of the 3d metals thin layers will be investigated by using the tight-binding-KKR (Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker) band structure calculation in order to provide inputs for the experimental part of the project. X- ray diffraction (XRD) and magnetic (VMS and SQUID) measurements will be carried out in order to ensure the right magnetic hard phase and structure. Thermal annealing and post annealing of the obtained materials will ensure an epitaxial growth and a more stable structure.

Objective 2 - Study of exchange spring magnets

Task 3

Deposition of thin film exchange spring magnets by combining the two previously obtained hard and soft magnetic phases. Exchange coupling between hard and soft magnetic layer is a largely discussed approach to tailor materials with magnetic properties not achievable in single-phase samples. Magnetron Sputtering offers the possibility to grow well textured or even fully aligned permanent magnet materials.X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and SQUID measurements will be carried out.

Task 4

Dissemination of our work is an important part for the present and future research results. This task emerges from all the previous tasks leading to a critical analysis of the work, which has been done to this point. Publishing articles is also a part of the present task, leading 17 as well to presenting our research work to international conferences. Future perspectives will be strongly analyzed based on the obtained results.