Engineering of Magnetic Properties of Magnetic Microwires

We present an overview of the factors affecting soft magnetic properties, fast domain wall propagation and giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect in thin amorphous wires. The magnetoelastic anisotropy is one of the most important parameters that determine the magnetic properties of glass-coated microwires and therefore annealing can be very effective for manipulation the magnetic properties of amorphous ferromagnetic glass-coated microwires. Increasing of DW velocity in Fe-rich and Fe-Ni based (low Ni content) microwires is achieved after annealing. After heat treatment of Co-rich microwires we can observe transformation of inclined hysteresis loops to rectangular and coexistence of fast magnetization switching and GMI effect in the same sample. On the other hand stress annealing of Fe- and Co-rich microwires allows achievement of considerable magnetic softening and GMI effect enhancement.