Influence of Mo content on magnetic properties of GdCoMo amorphous thin films

Abstract

The influence of the Mo content in (Gd 1− x Co x ) 1− y Mo y thin amorphous films was studied. Samples were prepared by the rf sputtering technique with x from 0.66 to 0.97 and y from 0.01 to 0.14. It was found that molybdenum influences the saturation magnetization, the g-factor and the uniaxial anisotropy field. Also surface modes in spin wave resonance in thin films (Gd 1− x Co x ) 1− y Mo y x = 0.85−0.94, y = 0.01−0.12 were studied. The surface anisotropy constant was determined from the surface inhomogeneity (SI) model [1]. The fitted K s values [2] agree with theoretically predicted ones. For some of our samples the best fit between model and experimental data was obtained when the surface anisotropy energy was assumed as a superposition of the uniaxial anisotropy term and a biaxial anisotropy term. The study of the influence of temperature and Mo content on the value of surface anisotropy constants shows that: 1. i) There is a critical temperature when the surface uniaxial anisotropy constant changes its character; 2. ii) an increasing Mo content makes the temperature dependence of the surface anisotropy constants more stabilized.