Doping magnetic materials - tunable properties due to ion implantation

Various magnetic properties like the saturation magnetization, the Curie temperature, the coercivity and the magnetic damping behavior can easily be modified by means of ion irradiation and implantation. In combination with focused ion beam techniques even a pure magnetic patterning without changing the surface topography becomes feasible. A magnetic domain pattern can be imprinted by using ion irradiation in an applied magnetic field. Thus doping of magnetic materials opens a route to a new class of artificial magnetic materials with adjustable magnetic properties.
Here, as an example, we report on the tailoring of the magnetic properties of Permalloy (20 nm Ni81Fe19) by means of 30 keV Cr implantation. Due to the doping the Curie temperature of the Permalloy film decreases with the implantation fluence and drops below room temperature at an averaged Cr concentration of about 7 at-%. Also the saturation magnetization and the uniaxial anisotropy decrease. However the magnetic damping behavior of Cr implanted Permalloy films is strongly enhanced which is due to a combination of structural changes and alloying effects in the thin film. In order to clarify the basic mechanism for the enhancement the chemical and structural contributions to the magnetic damping parameter are separated by a comparison to results of 30 keV Ni implantation.