Texture development and magnetic properties of sputter-deposited FePt-MgO nanocomposite films

We investigated the relationship among the development Of out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy, the L1(0) ordering reaction, and the texture development in multilayered (FePt/MgO)(n) films that were sputter deposited on a Si substrate. A large out-of-plane coercivity (H-c) of about 9.8 kOe and a heteroepitaxially grown nearly perfect L1(0) face-centered-tetragonal (001) texture were obtained for annealed (FePt 2.8 nm/MgO 3.2 nM)(6) films. The development of an L1(0) FePt (002) texture, which is the primary condition for out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy, depends strongly on the degree of face-centered-cubic FePt (200) and MgO (200) texture development in the as-deposited state. The magnetic anisotropy of the FePt film could be controlled from in-plane to out-of-plane by varying the thickness of the FePt and MgO sublayers. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.