Magnetic and structural properties of magnetron sputtered CoCr thin films

Abstract

The magnetic and structural properties of CoCr thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering at a high deposition rate of up to 10 nm/s have been characterized by various magnetometer measurements, TEM and Lorentz microscopy. In particular, the anisotropy field H <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</inf> normal to the film plane has been determined by three different methods (VSM, susceptibility and torque). From the measurements, a model has been derived to explain the domain structure and the in-plane magnetization reversal. It is concluded that the condition H <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</inf> > M <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">s</inf> is not stringent for perpendicular recording.