Investigation on the magnetomechanical behavior of trilayered GM actuator

In this article, it was suggested a TbFe/Co/Dy trilayered GM (Giant Magnetostrictive) film type actuator and investigated the magnetomechanical characteristics of the actuator for micro application. The trilayered films were fabricated at different thickness ratios to get an optimized structure. TbFe had positive GM properties, and cobalt, dysprosium layers made the magnetostriction property of composite film increase in low magnetic field. To fabricate the Si based microactuator with trilayered film, micromachining processes including RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) and selective DC magnetron sputtering techniques were combined. The deposited film thicknesses were measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD). As a result, the magnetization of the film on the fabricated actuator was observed to characterize the magnetic properties of the TbFe/Co/Dy film using VSM (Vibrating Sample Magnetometer). The magnetostriction of the actuator was determined by measuring the differences of curvature of the film coated silicon substrates using the optical cantilever method, and the deflections were also estimated under the external magnetic field lower than 0.5T for micro-system applications.