Intrinsic and extrinsic properties of epitaxial Nd2Fe14B films

Epitaxial Nd2Fe14B films with the c axis (easy magnetization axis) perpendicular to the film plane were prepared on a Ta(110) buffer on single crystalline Al2O3(0001) substrates using pulsed laser deposition. Due to the epitaxial film growth an almost perfect alignment of all magnetic moments perpendicular to the film plane is achieved. Coercivities up to 2 T are obtained for Nd-rich films where the Nd2Fe14B grains are magnetically decoupled. An analysis of the coercivity mechanism shows that the switching mechanism is nucleation dominated and the high coercivity is achieved by avoiding nucleation within the grains. Intrinsic properties like the spin reorientation temperature of 135 K and spin reorientation angle of 30degrees at 4.2 K of these films are in very good agreement to single crystal data. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.