Abstract
Magnetic properties of materials have been of increasing importance in recent
years due to their many uses in high tech devices. New materials are being sought for
magneto-optical storage, magnetic random access memory, and magnetic sensors. Stress,
both intrinsic and extrinsic, can affect magnetic properties, such as altering the magnetic
anisotropy and coercive force. To study the effects of external stress, a pressure cell was
constructed to apply isotropic biaxial stress to thin magnetic films on glass and metal
substrates. Thin films ofNiFe 35% were deposited on glass substrates by DC magnetron
sputtering. For 500 nm thick films the coercivity decreased with increasing pressure.
The relation between coercivity and pressure appeared to be linear which makes these
films very interesting for use in magnetic sensor devices. For 100 nm thick films there
was no observed change in coercivity with applied pressure. This difference for thin
films suggest a different magnetic reversal process at work.
