Surface and volume hysteresis loops of Fe-rich glass-coated microwires

Surface and volume hysteresis loops of the Fe65Si15B15C5 alloy in the form of a single glass-coated microwire and several (2, 5 10) microwires have be en measured and compared. Longitudinal Kerr effect was used for the observa tion of the surface hysteresis loops. Volume hysteresis loops have been mea sured by a fluxmetric method. Both surface and volume hysteresis loops of s ingle samples have similar rectangular shape and coercivities. Deviations f rom the rectangular shape of the hysteresis loop have been observed for the case of several samples. Such effects have been interpreted as the consequ ence of the interaction between microwires due to the effects of the demagn etizing fields. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.