Novel magneto-optical recording materials: Bi-substituted garnet films

Abstract

For future high density magneto-optical recording materials, a Bi-substituted garnet film ((BiDy)3(FeGa)5O12) is an attractive candidate since it has strong magneto-optic effect at short wavelengths less than 600 nm. The signal in read back performance at 500 nm using a garnet film can be an order of magnitude higher than a current rare earth-transition metal amorphous film. However, the granularity and surface roughness of such crystalline garnet films are the key to control for minimizing media noise.We have demonstrated a new technique to fabricate a garnet film which has much smaller grain size and smoother surfaces than those annealed in a conventional oven. This method employs a high ramp-up rate annealing (Γ = 50 ~ 100 C/s) in nitrogen atmosphere. Fig.1 shows a typical microstruture of a Bi-susbtituted garnet film deposited by r.f. sputtering and then subsequently crystallized by a rapid thermal annealing technique at Γ = 50 C/s at 650 °C for 2 min. The structure is a single phase of garnet, and a grain size is about 300A.