Magnetotransport and magnetic properties of amorphous NdNi 5 thin films

NdNi 5 is an intermetallic compound with a bulk Curie temperature (TCurie) of 6-13 K. While existing studies have focused on NdNi 5 crystals, amorphous thin-films of NdNi 5 are potentially important since they would be magnetically soft without magnetocrystalline anisotropy, meaning that small external magnetic fields could reverse the direction of their magnetization. Here, we report NdNi 5 thin-films with a thickness in the 5-200 nm range, deposited by DC magnetron sputtering onto Si(100). Films are amorphous with a weak temperature-dependent resistivity with values ranging between 150 and 300 ? ? cm. By means of noise spectroscopy, by analyzing the time-dependence of fluctuation-induced voltages, it is found that at low temperatures the resistance fluctuations are due to the Kondo effect. Volume magnetometry indicates TCurie= 70 K with a magnetic coercive field of 30 mT at 5 K for a 125-nm-thick film. The results are promising for the development of Ferromagnet(F)/Superconductor(S)/Ferromagnet(F) pseudo spin-valve devices based on amorphous NdNi 5 thin films