Thermal, magnetic and magnetomechanical properties of amorphous magnetron sputtered Fe78B13Si9

Large scale thick films of a high coupling magnetostrictive metallic glass have, for the first time, been successfully produced by magnetron sputtering and removed from the substrate. Magnetization and coupling factor experiments were performed on these free-standing films. Annealing of the samples resulted in a coercive force an order of magnitude lower than that achieved thus far by RF sputtering. Values of 35 mOe coercive force and 0.74 coupling factor were obtained. SEM pictures show the presence of a striped domain pattern distorted by the presence of residual inhomogeneous stresses.