Correlation of crystallographic structure and magnetic properties of electrodeposited Co-rich Co-Pt films

Abstract

Co-rich Co-Pt alloy films have been grown by electrodeposition on Au buffer layer. Detailed texture measurements have been performed in order to understand the dependence of magnetic properties on phase composition and texture. X-ray analysis in Bragg-Brentano geometry shows that films seem to consist of hexagonal closed packed (hcp) or fcc phase. Due to similar lattice spacing of the densely packed planes of both possible phases, the (111) fcc and (002) hcp planes of Co-Pt and also the higher order reflections coincide. As a result, the information supplied by X-ray diffraction was of limited value. Hence pole figure measurements are used which determine the directional distribution of planes with a selected spacing. Here we present an approach to use pole figure measurements for phase identification. We show that this method allow a direct correlation with the magnetic properties, in particular with the magnetocrystalline anisotropy and magnetic texture.