Thin Magnetically Soft Wires for Magnetic Microsensors

Recent advances in technology involving magnetic materials require development of novel advanced magnetic materials with improved magnetic and magneto-transport properties and with reduced dimensionality. Therefore magnetic materials with outstanding magnetic characteristics and reduced dimensionality have recently gained much attention. Among these magnetic materials a family of thin wires with reduced geometrical dimensions (of order of 1-30 mu m in diameter) have gained importance within the last few years. These thin wires combine excellent soft magnetic properties (with coercivities up to 4 A/m) with attractive magneto-transport properties (Giant Magneto-impedance effect, GMI, Giant Magneto-resistance effect, GMR) and an unusual re-magnetization process in positive magnetostriction compositions exhibiting quite fast domain wall propagation. In this paper we overview the magnetic and magneto-transport properties of these microwires that make them suitable for microsensor applications.

Metallic thin fi lms on stepped surfaces: lateral scattering of quantum well states

Quantum well states of Ag films grown on stepped Au(111) surfaces are shown to undergo lateral scattering, in analogy with surface states of vicinal Ag(111). Applying angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy we observe quantum well bands with zone-folding and gap openings driven by surface/interface step lattice scattering. Experiments performed on a curved Au(111) substrate allow us to determine a subtle terrace-size effect, i.e., a fine step-density-dependent upward shift of quantum well bands. This energy shift is explained as mainly due to the periodically stepped crystal potential offset at the interface side of the film. Finally, the surface state of the stepped Ag film is analyzed with both photoemission and scanning tunneling microscopy. We observe that the stepped film interface also affects the surface state energy, which exhibits a larger terrace-size effect compared to surface states of bulk vicinal Ag(111) crystals

Effect of surface plasmon resonance in TiO2/Au thin films on the fluorescence of self-assembled CdTe QDs structure

23rd Congress of the International Comission for Optics (ICO 23)