AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Thursday Sessions
       Session MI+MS+NS-ThM

Paper MI+MS+NS-ThM7
Correlated AFM/MFM and Magneto-Optical Studies on Epitaxial L1o FePd Thin Films

Thursday, November 3, 2005, 10:20 am, Room 204

Session: Advanced Magnetic Storage and Manufacturing Processes
Presenter: J. Skuza, University of Toledo
Authors: R.A. Lukaszew, University of Toledo
M. Mitra, University of Toledo
J. Skuza, University of Toledo
A. Cebollada-Navarro, Institute of Microelectronics in Madrid (IMM) - Spain
J.M. Garcia-Martin, Institute of Microelectronics in Madrid (IMM) - Spain
C. Clavero Perez, Institute of Microelectronics in Madrid (IMM) - Spain
Correspondent: Click to Email
The latest trend in data storage exploits perpendicular recording. Magnetic binary alloys (e.g. Fe-Pd, Fe-Pt) are of significant interest in magneto-recording because highly ordered L1o structures of these alloys exhibit very large magnetic anisotropy that can withstand the super-paramagnetic limit when reduced in size to accommodate the projected demands for higher areal densities. They can be deposited as films with the anisotropy axis perpendicular to the film plane, making them suitable for perpendicular media. There are practical problems associated with this scheme because usually the experimentally achieved perpendicular anisotropy tends to be too large for writing on this media. Therefore it has been suggested that canted magnetization would be more appropriate. Here we show our correlated XRD, AFM/MFM and magneto-optical studies on two series of epitaxial L1o FePd thin films of varying thickness grown on MgO. We have observed that the choice of capping material has significant effect on the resulting magnetic and magneto-optical properties of the films. We will show correlated structural and magneto-optical data for films grown under identical conditions but capped with either MgO or Pd. Our studies demonstrate that in the first case the films exhibit strong perpendicular anisotropy while in the latter the films have a magnetization component along the plane of the films in addition to the perpendicular component, thus yielding a net canted magnetization. In addition the films capped with Pd exhibit smaller coercivities than the ones capped with MgO thus enhancing their prospect use in heat-assisted magneto-recording.