On the origin of the perpendicular anisotropy and magnetostriction in amorphous RF sputtered GdCo films

Abstract

An attempt is made to determine the mechanism of induced perpendicular anisotropy and magnetostriction in rf sputtered GdCo amorphous thin films. For this purpose the compositional dependences of perpendicular anisotropy and linear magnetostriction are measured and analyzed in the frame of pair ordering model. The dipolar mechanism for anisotropy and magnetostriction is extended considering anisotropic part of the RKKY interaction. It is shown that the compositional dependence of perpendicular anisotropy and linear magnetostriction can be explained if both, pure dipolar and RKKY interactions are taken into account. The performed analysis proves that the RKKY interaction plays an important role in the creation of perpendicular anisotropy and magnetostriction in sputtered GdCo amorphous films in the range of film composition investigated.