Domain wall pinning on strain relaxation defects (stacking faults) in nanoscale FePd (001)/MgO thin films

Abstract

FePd (001) films, prepared by an electron beam deposition system on MgO(100), exhibit a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (1.7 × 107 erg/cc) with a high order parameter (0.92). The relation between stacking faults induced by the strain relaxation, which act as strong domain wall pinning sites, and the perpendicular coercivity of (001) oriented L10 FePd films prepared at different temperatures have been investigated. Perpendicular coercivity can be apparently enhanced by raising the stacking fault densities, which can be elevated by climbing dissociation of total dislocation. The increased stacking fault densities (1.22 nm−2) with large perpendicular coercivity (6000 Oe) are obtained for samples prepared at 650 °C. This present work shows through controlling stacking fault density in FePd film, the coercivity can be manipulated, which can be applied in future magnetic devices.