Study of annealed Co thin films deposited by ion beam sputtering

This paper presents structural, magnetic and transport property measurements carried out on as deposited as well as annealed Co (400 angstrom) thin films. The magnetization measurements carried out using a magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) technique show large increases in coercivity and saturation field values with annealing of the samples at higher temperatures. However, corresponding resistivity measurements show a gradual decrease in resistivity and drops to minimum at 500 degrees C. Observed magnetization and resistivity behavior is mainly attributed to (i) change in crystal structure from hcp to fee; (ii) increase in grain size; and (iii) stress relaxation due to the annealing treatment as revealed by x-ray diffraction measurements. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.