Controlling the Magnetoimpedance Property of Thin-Film Elements Using Joule Heating

Optimizing the performance of magnetoimpedance (MI) requires controlling the anisotropy of material which is often done with field annealing. However, field annealing needs large-scale equipment with a vacuum environment and consumes a large amount of electricity for heating and generating a large magnetic field. Conversely, Joule heating has advantages of simple, compact, and possible-to-use small current. Thus, we attempted controlling the magnetic anisotropy on thin-film MI elements using Joule heating and the applied field by magnets. Before annealing, the element has an easy axis with a direction parallel to the longitudinal direction of the element owing to shape anisotropy. After Joule heating, the MI behavior showed a double peak profile, which is a typical impedance profile when large impedance changes are obtained. The peak height in the impedance and inductance increases with the heating current up to 100 mA and then becomes constant or slightly increases. The field at which the impedance and inductance have a peak increases monotonically with increasing heat current. We confirm that the magnetic anisotropy direction changes with Joule heating and with a field applied by magnets based on observing the magnetic domain structure using a Kerr effect microscope.