Abstract
The present paper investigates the effects of thermal annealing on the structural and magnetic properties of Co thin films. The films were prepared by using electron-beam evaporation method onto Si (100) wafers and annealed in vacuum at 200 °C, 300 °C and 400 °C. A combination of X-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry were used to characterize structural properties and the composition of the films, while magnetic behavior was studied by magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements. It was found that as deposited Co layer show predominantly uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, while after annealing at 200 °C and 300 °C a strong influence of fourfold contribution is observed, which is assigned to the thermally induced HCP→FCC phase transition. With further increase in annealing temperature of 400 °C the isotropic contribution becomes the main component of magnetization. Besides, a strong variation in coercive field with annealing temperature was observed, where the coercivity seems to depend closely on the crystallite size. The highest value of HC equals ∼70 Oe and was found for the temperature of 400 °C, where also mixing at the interface has started and formation of CoSi was observed.
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