Tb doping induced enhancement of anomalous Hall effect in NiFe films

Tbx(Ni0.8Fe0.2)1−x films with x ≤ 0.14 are fabricated and the anomalous Hall effect is studied. The intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity and the extrinsic one from the impurity and phonon induced scattering both increase with increasing x. The enhancement of the intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity is ascribed to both the weak spin–orbit coupling enhancement and the Fermi level shift. The enhancement of the extrinsic term comes from the changes of both Fermi level and impurity distribution. In contrast, the in-plane and the out-of-plane uniaxial anisotropies in the TbNiFe films change little with x. The enhancement of the Hall angle by Tb doping is helpful for practical applications of the Hall devices.