Thin films of SmCo5 with very high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Abstract

Thin films of SmCo5 with extraordinarily high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy were prepared by introducing a Cu∕Ti dual underlayer and controlling the substrate temperature during the sputter deposition. Under optimized conditions, the magnetic anisotropy constant reached 4.0×107erg∕cm3, and the coercivity and the remanence ratio in the direction perpendicular to the film surface were 12.0kOe and unity, respectively. The high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is attributed to the high degree of preferred orientation of the c axis; the full width at half maximum in the rocking curve of SmCo5(002) reflection was 3.1°.