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Part of Topical Section on
Nanoscaled Magnetism and Applications www.pss-a.com
applications and materials science
Keywords Co-rich glass-coated microwires, giant magnetic impedance (GMI) effect, magnetometer
1 Introduction The amorphous glass-coated ferro- magnetic field of the order of 100 A m1. It is worth
magnetic microwires with thin metallic nucleus diameters mentioning that the similarly to magnetic permeability GMI
d ¼ 5–30 mm are promising for various technological is a tensor [5, 8]. Consequently microwires with a low
applications [1, 2]. In particular, the microwires with nearly negative magnetostriction having nearly circular magnetic
zero magnetostriction show a giant magnetoimpedance an anisotropy present off-diagonal GMI effect [5, 9]. The
(GMI) effect [3–7] that can be used to develop sensitive off-diagonal GMI effect is the appearance of the electro-
sensors for detection of a weak external magnetic field. motive force (EMF) in a pick-up coil wound around a
The diagonal GMI effect in a ferromagnetic microwire microwire when an alternating current frequency f flows
consists of a large change of the longitudinal component of through it. The off-diagonal GMI effect is especially suitable
the microwire impedance, Zzz(f,H), at a frequency f under for the creation of a highly sensitive magnetometer, since the
the influence of an external uniform magnetic field H. It EMF induced in the pick-up coil is directly proportional
was shown experimentally [4], that the GMI ratio (Zzz(f,H)– to the longitudinal component of applied magnetic
Zzz(f,0))/Zzz(f,0) can reach more than 600% in a weak field. Several laboratory prototypes of sensitive GMI
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2 S. Gudoshnikov et al.: Highly sensitive magnetometer based on the off-diagonal GMI effect
wire length, L 10 mm
resistance, Rdc 36 V cm1
coil radius, Rc 0.25 mm
coil turns number, Nc 85
ac frequency, fac 4 MHz
dc bias current, Idc 0.7 mA
Zzz/Rdc 1.75 (75%)
sensitivity at Iz1 ¼ 0.22 mA, V1/B 30 V T1
sensitivity at Iz2 ¼ 2 mA, V2/B 300 V T1
measured values of the GMI components were normalized to 2.2 Estimation of the off-diagonal GMI sensiti-
the dc microwire resistance per unit length, Rdc ¼ r/pR2, vity When an ac current flows along the microwire, the EMF
where r is the specific wire resistance and R is the radius of induced in the receiving pick-up coil, E ¼ 2pRcNcew(Rc), is
the metallic core of the microwire. proportional to the number of the coil turns Nc, and the
Figure 3 shows the reduced diagonal GMI component amplitude of the circumferential component of the high-
of the microwire, Zzz/Rdc, measured at a frequency frequency electric field in the coil, ew(Rc), where Rc is the
f ¼ 4 MHz with the amplitude of the high-frequency current coil radius. It can be shown [16], that the circumferential
Iz ¼ 0.22 mA without DC bias current (gray curve) and component of the electric field outside the microwire
for Idc ¼ 0.7 mA (black curve). Figure 4 shows the off- decreases approximately inversely proportional to the radial
diagonal GMI component of the wire measured at the same coordinate, so that ew(Rc) ¼ Rew(R)/Rc, where R is the radius
Idc values. In contrast to the complicated GMI signals of the metallic core of the microwire. On the other hand, in
obtained at Idc ¼ 0, a good linear characteristic is obtained the linear regime with respect to the ac current amplitude
for Idc ¼ 0.7 mA. Besides, in the latter case the measurements Iz the circumferential electric field component is proportional
are identical both for increasing and descending branches of to the off-diagonal component of the microwire impedance,
the applied magnetic field. This shows that the presence of a ew(R) ¼ IzZwz(f,H). Therefore, the EMF induced in the
small dc bias current is very important [9, 16] to stabilize receiving pick-up coil is given by E ¼ 2pRNcIzZwz(f,H).
the behavior of the off-diagonal GMI component of the Thus, one can see, that the sensitivity of the GMI sensor
amorphous Co-rich microwire. The measured characteristics to the applied magnetic field, apart from the obvious
of the GMI sensor are given in Table 2. parameters Nc and Iz, is determined also by the magnetic-
field dependence of the off-diagonal impedance component
Zwz(f,H). As follows from the theory [8, 16], in a range
of applied magnetic fields |H| < Ha, where Ha is the wire
anisotropy field, the off-diagonal impedance component
Zwz(f,H) is nearly proportional to the applied magnetic
field, Zwz(f,H) CH. However, the coefficient C ¼ dZwz/dH
depends on the frequency of the ac current f, as well as on
many other parameters, such as the distribution of the residual
quenching stress over the wire cross section, the magneto-
striction constant l, the effective magnetic damping k, the
amplitude of the weak dc bias current Idc, etc. Therefore,
the analysis of the dependence of Zwz(f,H) on the applied
magnetic field H can be made only by means of numerical
simulation [16], based on the micromagnetic calculation of
the distribution of the magnetization along the wire radius as
Figure 4 The off-diagonal GMI component of the Co-rich a function of applied magnetic field, and the corresponding
microwire in the absence of the dc bias current, Idc ¼ 0 (gray), solution of the Maxwell’s equations for the high-frequency
and for Idc ¼ 0.7 mA (black) as a function of applied magnetic field. components of the propagating electromagnetic field.
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4 S. Gudoshnikov et al.: Highly sensitive magnetometer based on the off-diagonal GMI effect
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6 S. Gudoshnikov et al.: Highly sensitive magnetometer based on the off-diagonal GMI effect
magnetometer are manufactured. The reliability of the [7] V. Zhukova, M. Ipatov, J. Gonzalez, J. M. Blanco, and
magnetometer, its high sensitivity and wide dynamic range A. Zhukov, J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07E714 (2008).
have been confirmed experimentally. Nevertheless this [8] N. A. Usov, A. S. Antonov, and A. N. Lagar’kov, J Magn.
GMI magnetometer is slightly behind the other GMI and Magn. Mater. 185, 159 (1998).
orthogonal flux gate magnetometers on dynamic character- [9] M. Ipatov, V. Zhukova, A. Zhukov, J. Gonzalez, and A. Zvezdin,
Phys. Rev. B 81, 134421 (2010).
istics [11] and noise characteristics [11, 23, 24]. The noise
[10] T. Uchiyama, S. Nakayama, K. Mohri, and K. Bushida, Phys.
parameters and the dynamic characteristics of the magnetom- Status Solidi A 206(4), 639 (2009).
eter may be improved due to optimization of the sensor [11] B. Dufay, S. Saes, C. Dolabdjian, A. Yelon, and D. Menard,
excitation conditions and widening of the detection electron- IEEE Trans. Magn. 49(1), 85 (2013).
ics frequency bandwidth. The studies of the low-frequency [12] P. Kollu, D. Y. Kim, and C. G. Kim, J. Magn. 12(1), 35
temperature offset drift [25] will be done in a future study. (2007).
[13] http://aichi-mi.com.
Acknowledgements We thank A. Kozlov for useful [14] V. Zhukova, M. Ipatov, and A. Zhukov, Sensors 9(11), 9216
discussions and for long-term cooperation. This work was (2009).
supported by EU under FP7 “EM-safety” project, by Spanish [15] K. Mohri, T. Uchiyama, L. P. Shen, C. M. Cai, and L. V.
Ministry of Science and Innovation, MICINN under Project Panina, Sens. Actuators A 91(1–2), 85 (2001).
MAT2010-18914, by the Basque Government under SAIOTEK- [16] N. A. Usov and S. A. Gudoshnikov, J. Appl. Phys. 113,
2012 MEMFOMAG (S-PE12UN139) and SAIOTEK 13 PRO- 243902 (2013).
MAGMI (SA-2013/00035) and DURADMAG (SA-2013/00018) [17] A. Zhukov, M. Ipatov, V. Zhukova, C. Garcia, J. Gonzalez,
projects. A. Zh. and V. Zh. wish to acknowledge support of the and J. M. Blanco, Phys. Status Solidi A 205(6), 1367
Basque Government under Program of Mobility of the Investigat- (2008).
ing Personnel of the Department of Education, Universities and [18] S. A. Gudoshnikov, B. Ya. Ljubimov, P. S. Palvanov, Yu. V.
Investigation (grants MV-2013-2-22 and MV-2013-2-23). Techni- Prokhorova, V. S. Skomarovski, N. A. Usov, and A. V.
cal and human support provided by S. G. Iker (UPV/EHU, Torcunov, Phys. Status Solidi A 206(4), 625 (2009).
MICINN, GV/EJ, ERDF and ESF) is gratefully acknowledged. [19] A. Zhukov, V. Zhukova, J. M. Blanco, A. F. Cobeño, M.
Vazquez, and J. Gonzalez, J. Magn. Magn. Mater 258–259,
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