STTR Phase I: Advanced Fabrication and Development of Exchanged Coupled Magnets

The Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I Project will use an already established filtered cathodic arc deposition (FCAD) process for building precise nano-scaled structures necessary to produce high-performance exchange coupled magnets (ECM). Theoretical calculations show that that the performance for ECM magnets can be two or three times that of single phase magnets. The FCAD process proposed in this work lends itself to depositing nano-dimension multilayers with dense morphology, thereby eliminating the need for heat treatment that is often required to help densify the multilayers and to increase magnetic interaction. Furthermore, the FCAD process is capable of extremely high production rates when compared to those achieved with sputtering, e-beam evaporation or molecular beam epitaxy. The development and use of ECM will allow the performance of electric motors and actuators to be increased for a given size magnet or alternatively will allow smaller, higher performing motors and systems to be constructed.