Recent experiments have discovered giant and sensitive magneto-impedance and magneto-inductive effects in FeCoSiB amorphous wires. These effects include a sensitive change in an ac wire voltage with the application of a small dc longitudinal magnetic field. At low frequencies (1–10 kHz) the inductive voltage drops by 50% for a field of 2 Oe (25%/Oe) reflecting a strong field dependence of the circumferential permeability. At higher frequencies (0.1–10 MHz) when the skin effect is essential, the amplitude of the total wire voltage decreases by 40%–60% for fields of 3–10 Oe (about 10%/Oe). These effects exhibit no hysteresis for the variation of an applied field and can be obtained even in wires of 1 mm length and a few micrometer diameter. These characteristics are very useful to constitute a highly sensitive microsensor head to detect local fields of the order of 10−5 Oe. In this paper, we review recently obtained experimental results on magneto-inductive and magneto-impedance effects and present a detailed discussion for their mechanism, developing a general approach in terms of ac complex impedance in a magnetic conductor. In the case of a strong skin effect the total wire impedance depends on the circumferential permeability through the penetration depth, resulting in the giant magneto-impedance effect.

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The magnetoimpedance (MI) effect has been investigated in a family of multilayer microwires with biphase magnetic behavior consisting of a soft nucleus (CoFeSiB), an intermediate nonmagnetic insulating layer, and a hard outer shell (CoNi). The MI response of the soft phase can be tailored by its magnetostatic coupling with the hard phase. The hard outer shell, in its remanence state, creates a bias field in the soft nucleus that shifts the magnetization process and results in an asymmetric MI response. The amplitude of that bias field is determined by the geometric characteristics and the magnetic state of the hard phase. Furthermore, a near linear MI behavior with high sensitivity was realized around zero operation field point, with the advantage of not employing external biasing fields and additional coils. This makes biphase microwires exhibiting self-bias and asymmetric MI very attractive as sensing elements in magnetic-field sensor devices and materials.

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Asymmetrical giant magnetoimpedance (AGMI), which utilizes a high frequency bias field hb, is realized in a Co-based amorphous wire having a circumferential anisotropy in the outer region. No asymmetry in the dc magnetic configuration is needed in this case. AGMI is discussed in terms of the surface impedance tensor, demonstrating that the effect of hb is related to the role of the off-diagonal component of the impedance in the voltage response measured across the wire. This effect is important for developing autobiased linear magnetic sensors. Using two oppositely biased wires, a near-linear voltage output (±4 mV) is obtained in the range of ±5 Oe for the sensed dc field at a frequency of 8 MHz.