Magnetostatic interaction in soft magnetic bilayer ribbons unambiguously identified by first-order reversal curve analysis

Monolithic amorphous Fe73.5Nb3Si13.5B9Cu1/Fe74.5Nb3Si13.5B9 bilayer ribbons were obtained by double-nozzle melt-spinning and subsequently annealed to produce a composite with a tailored nano/micro-crystalline structure. The overall magnetic behavior is characterized by butterfly-shaped high field hysteresis loops and positively biased low field ones. The main questions we wish to address here are whether the global magnetic behavior of the bilayer can be separated into the individual contributions of each layer and the magneto-coupling between them can be well understood. For that purpose, we performed first-order reversal curve analysis, which enabled us to distinctly identify two phases, of ultra-soft and semi-soft magnetic natures, whose mutual predominant interaction is the magnetostatic coupling.