Increasing ferromagnetic resonance frequency using lamination and shape

Abstract

The magnetic permeability frequency spectrum is one of the most critical properties for the operation of high frequency magnetic devices in the gigahertz regime. Permeability is fairly constant up to the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency, at which point the relative permeability drops to unity. Extending FMR to higher frequencies is thus imperative for developing GHz-range magnetic devices. The simulation and experimental investigations presented in this paper demonstrate how stacking layers to form a laminated film increases the FMR frequency by allowing flux closure between layers along the induced easy-axis direction. This flux closure reduces the demagnetization factor along the easy-axis direction by two orders of magnitude. This effect, however, is only observable in patterned films where the shape anisotropy is enough to result in variation of the FMR frequency. Experiments using patterned magnetic cores were performed to illustrate this effect. Through detailed investigation of the permeability spectra of both single layer and laminated CoTaZr magnetic films patterned into 500 μm × L films (where L ranged from 200 μm to 1000 μm), the FMR frequency was extracted and proven to increase as a result of lamination. The degree to which the frequency is boosted by lamination increases exponentially as the length of the film is decreased. Through a combination of lamination and shape demagnetization, the effective anisotropy, which directly relates to FMR frequency, was shown to increase by about 100%.