A novel method for measuring the out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy of thin films has been developed using the existing techniques of silicon micromachining. The torsion pendulum, which is commonly used to measure the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy constant, Ku, is modified into a single crystal silicon high Q torsional resonator. This article describes the principle of a silicon torsional resonator, the experimental procedure for measuring magnetic anisotropy, and the results. The theoretical values of Ku for Terfenol-D and Metglas® thin films were compared to the experimentally determined values and found to be within the error limits which for Metglas©, better than 1%. The agreement is poorer, 5%–15%, for amorphous stressed Terfenol-D, since its magneto-elastic energy is less accurately known. The results show that this is a viable method for measuring the magnetic anisotropy.

Young’s modulus of amorphous Terfenol-D films has been determined utilizing the resonances of Terfenol-D/Si composite cantilevers. Its value, 120 GPa about equals that of magnetically saturated Terfenol-D but displays no ΔE effect.

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