Origin of Magnetic Anisotropy of Iron Films Evaporated at Oblique Incidence

Abstract

Detailed electron microscopic investigations confirmed that the shape anisotropies of the columnar grains grown in iron films evaporated at oblique incidence, which are parallel and perpendicular to the columnar grain axis, are principally responsible for both of the anisotropy fields H k (1) and H k (2) analyzed from torque measurements, respectively. Fiber textures found by X-ray diffraction were of the types of {111} and {100} perpendicular to the columnar grain axis, having minor contribution to H k (1) and H k (2), but appearing to have some connection with their rapid increase with increasing angle of oblique incidence.