Magnetic and optical properties of amorphous NdFeCo thin films by pulsed laser deposition technique

Rare earth and transition metal doped (NdFeCo) thin films were fabricated on Si (100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique keeping the substrate at constant temperature of 300 degrees C. A KrF Excimer laser (248 nm, 20 ns) was used as an energy source for the deposition. Thin films were deposited without and under the influence of transverse magnetic field applied across the plume. The applied magnetic field was varied from 3 to 6 kOe. The deposited films were characterized by XRD, FESEM, VSM and SE (Spectroscopic Ellipsometry). The deposited films were amorphous in nature. All the films regardless of the applied magnetic field exhibit perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The thickness of the thin films was found to increase monotonically from 166 to 266 nm with the increase in the applied external magnetic field. The saturation magnetization has a maximum value of 1682 emu/cc for the film deposited under 4.5 kOe magnetic field. The value of optical band gap energy for the same film is found to have a maximum value of 3.1 eV. The values of both the saturation magnetization and the band gap energy were decreased with the increase in the applied magnetic field. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.