Magnetic properties of FeGa/Kapton for flexible electronics

Flexible materials have brought up a new era of application-based research in stretchable electronics and wearable devices in the last decade. Tuning of magnetic properties by changing the curvature of devices has significant impact in the new generation of sensor-based technologies. In this work, magnetostrictive FeGa thin films have been deposited on a flexible Kapton sheet to exploit the magneto-elastic coupling effect and modify the magnetic properties of the sample. The FeGa alloy has high magnetostriction constant and high tensile strength making its properties susceptible to external stress. Tensile or compressive strain generated by the convex or concave states influence the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy of the system. Low temperature measurements show a hard magnetic behavior and the presence of exchange-bias effect after field cooling to 2 K. The results obtained in this study prove essential for the development of flexible electronics.