Abstract
The magnetic and transport properties of pulsed laser-deposited Co100−x–Cux thin films were tailored through their nano-morphology and composition by controlling for the deposition geometry, namely normal or oblique deposition, and their Cu content. All films were composed of an amorphous Co matrix and a textured growth of Cu nanocrystals, whose presence and size d increased as x increased. For x = 50, all films were superparamagnetic, regardless of deposition geometry. The normally deposited films showed no in-plane magnetic anisotropy. On the contrary, controllable in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in both direction and magnitude was generated in the obliquely deposited films. The magnetic anisotropy field Hk remained constant for x = 0, 5 and 10, Hk ≈ 35 kAm−1, and decreased to 28 and 26 kAm−1 for x = 20 and 30, respectively. This anisotropy had a magnetostatic origin due to a tilted nano-sheet morphology. In the normally deposited films, the coercive field Hc increased when x increased, from 200 (x = 0) to 1100 Am−1 (x = 30). In contrast, in obliquely deposited films, Hc decreased from 1500 (x = 0) to 100 Am−1 (x = 30) as x increased. Activation energy spectra corresponding to structural relaxation phenomena in obliquely deposited films were obtained from transport property measurements. They revealed two peaks, which also depended on their nano-morphology and composition.
Highlights
Magnetic thin films are extensively studied owing to their suitability for numerous scientific and technological devices [1,2,3,4]
Using the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique, we fabricated ferromagnetic Co and Co-rich thin films with a distinctive and particular nano-morphology observed by HRTEM: They are formed by tilted nanosheets, whose dimensions are between ≈2.5 and 5 nm thick, between ≈30–100 nm wide and
In previous works [17,18,19,20,21,22,23], we showed that PLD Co and Co-rich thin films obtained at oblique incidence exhibited a well-defined in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, UMA, the origin of which we found to be magnetostatic because of their special morphology of oblique nano-sheets [17]
Summary
Magnetic thin films are extensively studied owing to their suitability for numerous scientific and technological devices [1,2,3,4]. These films have a broad range of applications in ultra-high frequency devices, data storage, write–read heads, and in microelectromechanical systems, such as sensors, actuators, micromotors, etc. Can be precisely tailored during the growth, influencing the magnetic behavior [8,9,10,11,12] Among these techniques, physical vapor deposition ones are extensively used [13,14,15,16]. Using the Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique, we fabricated ferromagnetic Co and Co-rich thin films with a distinctive and particular nano-morphology observed by HRTEM: They are formed by tilted nanosheets, whose dimensions are between ≈2.5 and 5 nm thick, between ≈30–100 nm wide and
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