Surface magnetic characterisation of FeSiB amorphous ribbons

The aim of this paper is to study the surface magnetic properties of the Fe/sub 77.5/Si/sub 7.5/B/sub 15/ amorphous ribbons using the magneto-optic Kerr effect. The bulk magnetic behaviour of the samples is also investigated. X-ray diffraction is used to confirm the amorphous state of the samples and atomic force microscopy is utilized to investigate surface topography. Results show that the surface roughness of the studied samples is seen to be high and presents two different kind of topographies: the free side exhibits characteristic conical shape roughness and random distribution, while for the wheel side the roughness tends to organise on certain directions. The coercive magnetic field value, H/sub c/, is higher for the wheel side than for the free side.