Investigation of copt and copt + ZrOx thin films for magnetic storage media using high-resolution analytical electron microscopy

Abstract

Materials for very high density magnetic storage media, with capacities of 10 Gbits/in2 and beyond, require high coercivity and high signal to noise ratio. To achieve storage densities of this level engineering of the material to produce very fine, magnetically decoupled domains is necessary. We have characterized the microstructure and microchemistry of 10 nm thick CoPt and CoPt + ZrOx thin films, as deposited and annealed, using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nanometer-scale energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS).CoPt has a very high coercivity (Hc) when annealed to produce the ordered Ll0 phase. Annealing also increases grain size which reduces the signal to noise ratio. Co-sputtering CoPt with ZrOx was intended to reduce grain size. TEM micrographs in Figure 1 show that grain growth was dramatically reduced in the CoPt + ZrOx films. Essential to the development of optimum material properties are quantified grain size measurements, yet owing to the small grain size and the complexity of TEM images due to diffraction contrast there are few systematic studies of grain size in thin films.