Magnetic properties of 'thick' glass-coated Fe-rich microwires

We report on preparation and magnetic properties of Fe71.7B13.4Si11Nb3Ni0.9 glass-coated microwire with metallic nucleus diameter d = 103 μm and total diameter D = 158 μm prepared by Taylor-Ulitovsky method. Amorphous structure of as-prepared microwires is confirmed by X-ray diffraction. As-prepared glass-coated microwires present relatively high GMI effect (about 50%) and relatively low coercivity (about 25 A/m). Additionally, as-prepared sample present rectangular hysteresis loop and fast single domain wall propagation with domain wall mobility of about 11,9 m2/As. After annealing we observed considerable improvement of the GMI ratio (from 50% up to 100%). Observed GMI effect improvement has been attributed to the stresses relaxation. From aforementioned studies we can conclude that the Taylor-Ulitovsky technique allows us to obtain thick ferromagnetic microwires with good magnetic properties and GMI effect suitable for industrial applications.