Mirroring the dynamic magnetic behavior of magnetostrictive Co/(Ag,Cu,Ta) multilayers grown onto rigid and flexible substrates

We investigate the magnetoimpedance effect in a wide frequency range in magnetostrictive Co/(Ag,Cu,Ta) multilayers grown onto rigid and flexible substrates. We observe a direct correlation between structural and quasi-static magnetic properties and the magnetoimpedance effect, since they are directly dependent on the nature of the spacer material. Moreover, we verify that all these properties are insensitive to the kind of employed substrate. We compare the magnetoimpedance results measured for multilayers in rigid and flexible substrates and discuss them in terms of different mechanisms that govern the impedances changes, magnetic anisotropy, structural character, and of numerical calculation results found in the literature. The fact that magnetostrictive multilayers can be reproduced in distinct kinds of substrates corresponds to an important advance for their applicability. The results place multilayers grown onto flexible substrates as attractive candidates for application as probe element in the development of MI-based sensor devices.