Investigation of structural stability and magnetic properties of Fe/Ni multilayers irradiated by 300Â keV Fe10+

The effects of irradiation on the structural stability and magnetic properties of Fe/Ni multilayers, which are promising candidate magnet materials in fusion reactors, were investigated. Three types of Fe/Ni multilayers with different modulation periods ranging from 2 nm to 10 nm were deposited on Si (1 0 0) substrate through direct current magnetron sputtering. The multilayered samples were irradiated by 300 keV Fe10+ ions in a wide fluence range of 1.7 × 1018/m2 to 2 × 1019/m2. Magnetic hysteresis loops of pre- and post-irradiation samples were obtained using a vibrating sample magnetometer, and structural stability were analyzed by X-ray diffraction. Magnetic measurements showed that the coercive force of Fe/Ni multilayers remained stable with increasing irradiation fluence. However, saturation magnetization increased with increasing irradiation fluence. The samples with 5 nm modulation period were the least affected by irradiation among the three types of Fe/Ni multilayers. The effects of temperature during irradiation were also discussed to explore the optimum temperature of multilayers.