Study of exchange interaction, magnetization correlations and random magnetic anisotropy in nanocrystalline Pr2Co7 films deposited on Si substrate.

Abstract In this work, we studied the exchange interaction as a function of X thickness for nanocrystalline Pr2Co7 thin films prepared by electron beam evaporation on Si(1 0 0) substrate. A quantitative analysis of static ferromagnetic correlations was realized by two methods: the correlation magnetometry technique (CMT) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM). Using random magnetic anisotropy model, the thickness dependence of magnetic macroscopic properties (exchange interaction energy A, the magnetic correlation length R c , the anisotropy constant K a ) and magnetic microscopic properties (saturation magnetization M s , coercivity H c ) were investigated. In addition, many fundamental magnetic parameters were extracted. The exchange interaction energy A decreases from 6.151 × 10 - 7 for X = 10 nm to 6.132 × 10 - 7 erg/cm for X = 400 nm. This causes a decrease in the coercivity H c from 81.2 × 10 4 to 10.4 × 10 4 A/m. The soft magnetic properties of these films are due to interaction of magnetization correlations and random magnetic anisotropy. The nanocrystalline Pr2Co7 films can be considered as suitable candidates for basic surveys of magnetization correlations.