Anomalous low-temperature magnetoelastic properties of nanogranular (CoFeB)_(x)-(SiO₂)_(1-x)

We report magnetostatic measurements for granulated films (CoFeB)$_{x}$-(SiO$_{2}$)$_{1-x}$ with fabrication induced intraplanar anisotropy. The measurements have been performed in the film plane in the wide temperature interval 4.5$\div$300 K. They demonstrate that above films have low-temperature anomaly below the percolation threshold for conductivity. The essence of the above peculiarity is that below 100 K the temperature dependence of coercive field for magnetization along easy direction deviates strongly from Neel-Brown law. At temperature lowering, the sharp increase of coercivity is observed, accompanied by the appearance of coercive field for magnetization along hard direction in the film plane. We establish that observed effect is related to the properties of individual ferromagnetic granules. The effect weakens as granules merge into conglomerates at $x$ higher then percolation threshold and disappears completely at $x>1$. We explain the above effect as a consequence of the difference in thermal expansion coefficients of granule and cover material. At temperature lowering this difference weakens the envelopment of an individual granule by the cover matrix material, thus permitting to realize the spontaneous magnetostriction of a granule. The latter induces an additional anisotropy with new easy axis of a granule magnetization along the external magnetic field direction. Our explanation is tested and corroborated by the ferromagnetic resonance measurements in the films at $T$ = 300 K and $T$ = 77 K.