不同退火时间对[Ag/FePt]_(10)多层膜磁性能和微结构的影响

采用射频磁控溅射的方法,在玻璃基片上制备了不同Ag层厚度的[Ag/FePt 2nm]10多层薄膜,经550℃真空热处理后,得到L10有序结构的FePt薄膜.实验结果显示,FePt单层薄膜经550℃退火30min后其易磁化轴处于垂直方向和面内方向之间,而550℃退火60min后其易磁化轴处于垂直于膜面方向,垂直矫顽力和面内矫顽力分别为634和302kA/m;真空退火后[Ag/FePt]10多层膜表现为面内磁晶各向异性,550℃退火60min后[Ag 2.8nm/FePt 2nm]10多层薄膜垂直矫顽力和面内矫顽力分别为309和778kA/m,并且随着Ag层的加入,部分FePt颗粒已经被Ag原子隔开了,颗粒之间的交换耦合作用变弱了.     

FeTaC magnetic soft underlayer for L1(0) FePt based perpendicular recording media

FeTaC magnetic soft underlayer under elevated temperature process conditions for L1(0) FePt based perpendicular recording media has been investigated. After annealing FeTaC for 40 min at 350 degrees C, saturation moment increases to 750 emu/cm3 and, coercivity and remanent moment reduce to 2.3 Oe and 166 emu/cm3 respectively. The microstructure of FeTaC annealed at 350 degrees C for 40 min composes of Fe nanocrystals with random orientations immersed in an amorphous matrix. FeTaC surface roughness due to elevated temperature process is reduced by 100 W RF plasma etching and CrRu with (200) orientation is developed. It is found that changing elemental composition due to C diffusion into the CrRu layer and RF preferential etching over Fe, Ta and C has the influence on the magnetic properties of FeTaC.     

FePtAg颗粒薄膜的制备及性能表征

采用磁控溅射方法在自然氧化的单晶Si(100)基片上制备了FePtAg颗粒薄膜.通过调整靶材的溅射速率、控制掺杂Ag元素的含量,选择适当的热处理工艺,获得了晶粒尺寸约5nm,分布均匀的FePt颗粒薄膜,矫顽力为3.2×105A/m,磁滞回线具有良好的矩形度,薄膜内部无交换耦合作用,适用于高密度磁记录介质材料.     

Crystallographic structure and magnetic properties in L1(0) FePt thin films deposited at different temperature

The crystallographic structure and magnetic properties of L1(0) FePt thin films deposited at different substrate temperature were investigated systematically in present paper. The ordered L1(0) FePt thin film was developed when substrate temperature is higher than 300 degrees C. The ordering parameter S, the degree of tetragonality c/a, and the epitaxial quality of the films, increase with increasing substrate temperature. The squareness and coercivity in the direction perpendicular to the film increase as the substrate temperature is increased and the perpendicular anisotropy is developed when the substrate temperature is higher than 300 degrees C. The magnetic anisotropy Ku increases with increasing substrate temperature and it might be concluded that the magnetic anisotropy of ordered L1(0) FePt thin films mainly stems from the magnetocrystalline origin and also possibly due to pair ordering mechanism.     

Effects of Cu underlayer on the growth and magnetic properties of FePt thin films on MgO (001) substrate

During ordering process of face centered tegragonal (fct) L1(0) phase of the FePt alloy, there exist three growth variants of axes (001) from original disordered fcc structured phase. When FePt film was directly deposited on the MgO (001) substrate, the variant perpendicular to the film plane grew, resulting in a low out-of-plane coercivity of 1.3 kOe. By using Cu underlayer, two variants lying in the film plane got same chance to grow, which caused an in-plane perpendicular alignment of the tetragonal axes of FePt L1(0) phases. The crystallographic relationship between Cu and FePt layers is Cu (100)<100>//fct FePt (100)<100>. A high in-plane coercivity of 4.6 kOe was obtained due to the high density of micro-defects (mcro-twins, anti-phase boundaries, etc.) in the film plane. This work demonstrated a way of selecting the growth variants of ordering process to adjust the magnetic properties of the ordered FePt thin films.     

Nanoindentation-induced phase transformation in (1 1 0)-oriented Si single-crystals

Pressure-induced plastic deformation and phase transformations manifested as the discontinuities displayed in the loading and unloading segments of the load–displacement curves were investigated by performing the cyclic nanoindentation tests on the (1 1 0)-oriented Si single-crystal with a Berkovich diamond indenter. The resultant phases after indentation were examined by using the cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) technique. The behaviors of the discontinuities displayed on the loading and re-loading segments of the load–displacement curves are found to closely correlate to the formation of Si-II metallic phase, while those exhibiting on the unloading segments are relating to the formation of metastable phases of Si-III, Si-XII, and amorphous silicon as identified by TEM selected area diffraction (SAD) analyses. Results revealed that the primary indentation-induced deformation mechanism in Si is intimately depending on the detailed stress distributions, especially the reversible Si-II ? Si-XII/Si-III phase transformations might have further complicated the resultant phase distribution. In addition to the frequently observed stress-induced phase transformations and/or crack formations, evidence of dislocation slip bands was also observed in tests of Berkovich nanoindentation.     

Effects of interfacial structure on the magnetic properties of ultrathin Fe/Pt(111) films with Ag buffer layer

For Fe/Pt(111) grown at 180 K, the easy axis of magnetization changes from out-of-plane to in-plane while the surface structure changes from fcc(111) to bcc(110). The Curie temperature for 1 ML Fe/Pt(111) is close to room temperature. After insertion of submonolayer Ag, no significant change for the Curie temperature is observed. By thermally annealing Ag/Pt(111) at 550 K to form a Ag-Pt surface alloy, we demonstrate that the Curie temperature of the deposited Fe films is elevated to be higher than room temperature. For an ultrathin Fe/Ag/Fe/Pt(111) sandwich system, the strong interaction between the two Fe layers is superior due to the effect of the double Fe/Ag interfaces. This causes that the easy axis of the magnetization switches back to the in-plane direction during the deposition of Fe overlayer on the surface of a Ag/Fe/Pt(111) film.     

Effects of annealing time on the structural and magnetic properties of L10 FePt thin films

Thermal annealing of [Fe 1.65 nm/Pt 1.84 nm]₅₀ multilayers at 673 K for various annealing times between 60 and 12000 s leads to the direct formation of the fully ordered L1₀ FePt phase with (111) texture. The average grain sizes, determined from X-ray diffraction size-strain analysis, are smaller than the critical size for multi-domain FePt particles, suggesting the presence of single-domain (SD) grains. The coercivity increases with annealing time and increasing grain size and reaches values of about 955 kA/m. The remanence values are typical for randomly oriented weakly-interacting particles. A decrease of the remanence with annealing time suggests a decrease of the intergrain exchange interactions with annealing time. Analysis of minor loops and the initial magnetization curves shows the presence of a broad distribution of critical fields, which the individual SD particles have to overcome for the magnetization reversal.     

L10 ordered FePt based double-layered perpendicular recording media with (002) oriented FeCo films as a soft magnetic underlayer

The introduction of the soft magnetic underlayer (SUL) in perpendicular recording technology is to further increase the recording areal density. However, problems such as growth of the uncontrollable recording layer and additional media noise contributed from the SUL could be resulted. In this work, a synthetic antiferromagnetically (SAF) coupled (002) oriented Fe₆₅Co₃₅ film as an SUL was developed for L1₀ ordered FePt based double-layered recording media. The crystallography of hetero-epitaxially grown double-layered media CrRu/(Ru/FeCo)₂/Pt/FePt/Ru was demonstrated. The L1₀ ordered FePt based double-layered perpendicular recording media with SAF coupled FeCo films as the SUL were developed.     

Annealing behaviour and magnetic properties of Co/Pt and Fe/Pt bilayer thin films

The annealing behaviour and magnetic properties of Co/Pt and Fe/Pt bilayer thin films are investigated. The coercivity of Co/Pt bilayer thin films increases with annealing above 450 °C and shows a peak value of 40 kA m⁻¹ in the range from 500 to 550 °C. This increase is due to both the formation of a CoPt solid solution and the optimization of grain diameters. Furthermore, the increase is promoted by multilayering. Similar results were obtained for Fe/Pt bilayer thin films.     

Effect of Ag underlayer on microstructures and perpendicular magnetic properties of CoPt nanocomposite thin films

CoPt/Ag films were prepared by magnetron sputtering on glass substrates and subsequent annealing. The dependence of degree of ordering and magnetic properties on Ag film thickness and annealing conditions were investigated. It was found that the Ag underlayer played a dominant role in inducing the (001) texture of the CoPt film after annealing. CoPt films with a thickness about 20 nm and Ag underlayers with a thickness about 70 nm are easy to obtain a large degree of ordering and a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy after annealing at 700 degrees C for 30 min. CoPt/Ag films with out-of-plane coercivity (Hc (perpendicular)) in the range of 13.5-14.0 kOe and a out-of-plane squareness (S(perpendicular)) of 0.97 were obtained after annealing at 700 degrees C for 30 min. Ag underlayer is beneficial to enhance the Hc(perpendicular)and S(perpendicular) of CoPt film significantly. The degree of ordering and perpendicular magnetic properties of the CoPt films which deposited on Ag underlayer are larger than those of the single layer CoPt films.     

溅射方法对FePt:Ag颗粒膜磁性能及微观结构的影响

分别采用共溅射和多层膜溅射方法制备了FePt:Ag颗粒膜.样品的磁性能和微观特性分别用振动样品磁强计(VSM)、磁力显微镜(MFM)和透射电镜(TEM)进行了表征.研究结果表明:多层膜溅射制备的FePt:Ag颗粒膜能在较低的退火温度下发生有序化相变;而共溅射制备的FePt:Ag颗粒膜经过相同的退火条件后,具有更高的矫顽力,及更细、分布更均匀的晶粒和磁畴结构.     

Diffusion of a vacancy on Fe(1 0 0): A molecular-dynamics study

The diffusion of a surface vacancy on Fe(1 0 0) has been studied at various temperatures by means of molecular-dynamics simulations in conjunction with a many body potential in the context of the embedded atom method. This interatomic potential was recently constructed by fitting its parameters to both experimental and first-principles results. From the analysis of the vacancy jumps, three main diffusion mechanisms have been investigated. The first one corresponds to the migration of the vacancy on the surface layer (intra-layer jumps) by hopping to a neighboring site, while the two others involve the participation of an atom of the second layer (inter-layer jumps) as well. The temperature dependence of the associated diffusion coefficients follows an Arrhenius behavior, from which the migration energies and pre-exponential factors were deduced. It was found that one of the mechanisms corresponding to inter-layer jumps is energetically slightly favored over the two other processes and in addition, its diffusivity is about six times higher than that of the two others. Our results show that the contribution of vacancy diffusion to mass transport is important.     

Structure and magnetization reversal mechanism in L10 FePt films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

A series of L1₀ Fe₆₃Pt₃₇ films with controlled thickness (t_FM) were deposited on MgO(100) substrates for microstructure and magnetization reversal mechanism study. X-ray diffraction measurements show that face-centered tetragonal (200) peak also exists in addition to face-centered tetragonal (002) one, and becomes weak for thick films. High resolution electron microscopy study reveals the existence of periodic misfit dislocations at the FePt/MgO interface and other types of defects such as twins and antiphase boundary inside the film. Out-of-plane initial magnetization shows a slow increase responding to the external magnetic field and then follows a steep increase. The out-of-plane coercivity H_C at room temperature decreases with increasing t_FM and increases when the angle θ_H between the external magnetic field and the film normal direction increases. H_C at θ_H = 0 changes as a linear function of temperature for individual samples and the slope decreases with increasing t_FM. In addition, magnetic viscosity measurements show that the fluctuation field at room temperature decreases with increasing t_FM. These phenomena indicate that the magnetization reversal in the L1₀ FePt films should be realized by the motion of weakly pinned domain wall and thus governed by the thermal activation model. The magnetization reversal thermal activation volume and corresponding energy increase with increasing t_FM, as a result of the interactions between domain walls and structural defects can be attributed to the sample microstructural characteristic evolution with t_FM.     

The effect of Mn doping in FePt nanoparticles on the magnetic properties of the L1(0) phase

FePtMn nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution and an average diameter of 3?nm were synthesized by the chemical reduction of Fe(acac)(3) and Pt(acac)(2) by NaBH(4) and the thermal decomposition of Mn(2)(CO)(10) in phenyl ether. The as-made nanoparticles have a disordered face-centred cubic (fcc) structure, which transformed after thermal treatment at 650?°C to an ordered face-centred tetragonal (fct) structure, possessing coercivity values up to 13.7?kOe at room temperature. The coercivity of the annealed samples depends on the amount of Mn added to the reaction mixture, with the coercive field increasing significantly with the partial substitution of Pt by Mn, while the partial substitution of Fe by Mn does not affect the magnetic properties strongly.     

Pt的含量对[Fe/Pt]n多层膜磁性能的影响

采用射频磁控溅射的方法,在玻璃基片上制备了不同膜层结构的[Fe/Pt]n多层膜,经不同温度真空热处理后,得到L10有序结构的FePt薄膜.实验结果表明,[Fe/Pt]n多层膜结构可以有效降低FePt薄膜的有序化温度,350℃退火30min后其平行膜面矫顽力可达1.6×105A/m;多层膜结构中,Pt层厚度与Fe层厚度相同时,矫顽力最大,当Fe、Pt层厚度比偏离1:1时,在Fe/Pt接触处易产生Fe3Pt和FePt3软磁相;Pt层和Fe层厚度相等且总厚度相同的情况下,Fe、Pt单层厚度越薄,有序化温度越低,且对应的矫顽力大.     

Characterisation of oxidised erbium films deposited on Si(1 0 0) substrates

Thin Er-oxide films were prepared by oxidation of pure Er films grown on glass and Si (p) substrates. The oxide films were characterised by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and optical absorption spectroscopy. The XRD analysis of the as-prepared oxide film and the vacuum-annealed film demonstrates the formation of Er₂O₃ phase with about 4.6% of ErO phase, which totally transforms into Er₂O₃ phase under annealing at 600 °C in dry oxygen. Therefore, the phase-structural changes in the prepared Er-oxide films because of the annealing and the long-time storage in vacuum were studied. The constructed Al/Er-oxide/Si MOS devices were characterised by measuring gate-voltage dependence of their capacitance and ac conductance, from which the surface states density (D_it) of insulator/semiconductor interfacial charges and the density of fixed charges in the oxide, were determined, which were within the device-grade range. The ac-electrical conduction and dielectric properties of the of the Er oxide–silicon structure were studied at room temperature. The data of ac conductivity measurements were found to follow the correlated barrier-hopping (CBH) model and the model's parameters were calculated, while the Kramers–Kronig (KK) relations explain the high-frequency dependence of the capacitance.     

Probing interfacial properties of ferromagnetic/insulator bilayers with X-ray spectroscopies: Application to Fe,Co, Mn/MgO(0 0 1) interfaces

Electronic and magnetic properties of bcc Co, Fe and Mn(0 0 1) epitaxial monolayers in contact with a single-crystalline MgO(0 0 1) film were studied using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements. The XPS and XAS analysis clearly evidenced the weak hybridization between the MgO barrier and Fe or Co. On the contrary, a net oxidization of the Mn layer in contact with the MgO layer was observed. The magnetic properties were characterized by probing the XMCD signal of a unique atomic plane of transition metal in contact with MgO. The total magnetic moment per Co and Fe atoms were observed to increase compared to the bulk at the metal/oxide interface. Finally, Mn at the interface with MgO does not present any ferromagnetic behavior. This was assumed to be a consequence of the Mn oxidization.     

Ag衬底层对FePt薄膜结构和性能的影响

采用磁控溅射方法在自然氧化的单晶Si(100)衬底上制备了双层结构的FePt-X/Ag(X=Ag或Pt)薄膜.以20nm厚的Ag做衬底,可以制备出易磁化轴垂直基片的FePt合金薄膜;Ag在FePt薄膜中优先团聚,不利于控制FePt晶粒的长大,调整Pt的含量可以控制热处理过程中FePt薄膜的晶粒尺度;通过XRD、TEM、VSM对薄膜样品的结构、晶粒尺寸的观察和磁性检测,我们认为FePt合金薄膜有序化转变的最佳热处理温度在400℃;经过500℃热处理,薄膜软硬磁耦合较好,晶粒尺寸约为100nm,有最大的矫顽力1.04×106A/m.