High in-plane anisotropy of epitaxial CoPt(110) alloy films prepared by co-sputtering or molecular beam epitaxy on MgO
M. Abes, O. Ersen, C. Meny, G. Schmerber, M. Acosta, J. Arabski, C. Ulhaq-Bouillet, A. Dinia, P. Panissod, and V. Pierron-Bohnes
J. Appl. Phys. 102 063911 (2007)
We present structural and magnetic properties of 3 sets of structures : as-deposited CoPt films co-sputtered at 900K on MgO(110) substrates with a Pt(110) buffer layer and CoPt films deposited by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) directly on MgO(110) substrates at 900K, as prepared and annealed at 900K. All layers have the L10 tetragonal structure. The chemical long-range ordering for the as-deposited CoPt films is incomplete in contrast with the annealed CoPt films, where long-range order is the highest. The structural study of these CoPt films grown on MgO(110) has pointed out that 3 variants of the L10 phase coexist. The proportion of x- and y-variants, with the concentration modulation along a vector oriented at 45° with respect to the growth direction, is higher than the proportion of the z-variant with the concentration modulation within the plane. The magnetic study shows an in-plane easy magnetization axis with a large magnetic anisotropy. This is interesting for the magnetic recording media with classical longitudinal writing and reading heads. The simulation of the magnetization loops confirms that the easy magnetization axis is within the plane and along the direction, favored by the dominant x- and y-variants.
![The 3 variants of the L10 phase in the CoPt(100)/MgO(110) samples : the x- and y-variants, orientated along the [100] and [010] directions at 45° of the [110] growth direction, and the z-variant with the modulation of the concentration along [001] in the plane. The x-, y-, and z-variants have been drawn as growing on (100), (010), and (001) facets respectively.](http://www.ipcms.unistra.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/spip.php101.jpeg)
The 3 variants of the L10 phase in the CoPt(100)/MgO(110) samples : the x- and y-variants, orientated along the [100] and [010] directions at 45° of the [110] growth direction, and the z-variant with the modulation of the concentration along [001] in the plane. The x-, y-, and z-variants have been drawn as growing on (100), (010), and (001) facets respectively.