Changes in magnetic properties and lattice structure of FeRh films by 180 keV–10 MeV ion (H, He, and I) irradiation are studied. In spite of the irradiation with different ion species and wide range of energies, the changes in magnetization are dominated by solely a single parameter; the density of energy which is deposited through elastic collision between the ions and the samples. For the low deposition energy density, the magnetization increases with increasing the deposition energy density, while the lattice structure remains unchanged. When the deposition energy density becomes larger, however, the magnetization decreases after reaching the maximum value. The decrease in the magnetization accompanies the crystal structure change from B2 to A1. The present results imply that the magnetic state of FeRh films can be designedly controlled by the energetic ion irradiations.

We investigated a low-energy ion-beam irradiation process for the magnetic modification of FeRh thin films using a focused ion beam system. Low-energy ion-beam irradiation induced ferromagnetic states in the FeRh thin films at low temperatures, that originally exhibited antiferromagnetism, as effectively as high-energy ion-beam irradiation. Because the energy deposited by the elastic collisions caused by the irradiation determined the magnetic properties of the samples, the magnetic state of the FeRh thin films could be quantitatively controlled. The low-energy ion-beam irradiation using a focused ion beam system is a potential technique to modify the magnetic properties of materials on the nano-and micro-scales, which may lead to a variety of novel spin devices and applications.

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Low temperature ferromagnetic FeRh with B2-type crystal structure was successfully synthesized by annealing of the excessively irradiated FeRh thin film samples having nonmagnetic A1-type crystal structure. The B2 phase transformed from the A1 phase by this process contained some amount of lattice defects, such as anti-site defects and vacancies, which made the magnetic spins of the sample aligned. These results imply that the combination of the process of the ion-beam irradiation and annealing of the film samples makes the magnetic state systematically controlled.