Two-layered ferromagnetic alloy films (NiFe and CoFe) with intermediate NiFeCuMo soft magnetic layers of different thicknesses were investigated to understand the relationship between coercivity and magnetization process by taking into account the strength of hard-axis saturation field. The thickness dependence of H(EC) (easy-axis coercivity), H(HS) (hard-axis saturation field), and chi (susceptibility) of the NiFeCuMo thin films in glass/Ta(5 nm)/[CoFe or NiFe(5 nm-t/2)]/NiFeCuMo(t = 0, 4, 6,8,10 nm)/[CoFe or NiFe(5 nm-t/2)]/Ta(5 nm) films prepared using the ion beam deposition method was determined. The magnetic properties (H(EC). H(HS), and chi) of the ferromagnetic CoFe, NiFe three-layers with an intermediate NiFeCuMo super-soft magnetic layer were strongly dependent on the thickness of the NiFeCuMo layer. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.