Achievement of Diverse Domain Structures in Soft Magnetic Thin Film through Adjusting Intrinsic Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy

Abstract

Oriented soft magnetic hcp-Co1 − xIrx films with a fixed thickness of 120 nm were fabricated. All prepared films exhibit soft magnetic properties but various magnetocrystalline anisotropies with the variation of Ir content. The measured data shows that diverse domain structures including the Néel wall, Bloch wall, and stripe domains present in a fixed film thickness. It is singular for the single-layer soft magnetic film to possess diverse domains in a fixed thickness. This phenomenon was explained by introducing intrinsic magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy into soft magnetic films rather than the structural parameters of the film, inner stress, and microstructure effect.

Effective reduction of the coercivity for Co$_{72}$Pt$_{28}$ thin film by exchange coupled Co$_{81}$Ir$_{19}$ soft layer with negative magnetocrystalline anisotropy

“…The tilt of the hysteresis loop suggests a weak inter-granular coupling of the HL, which is favorable for the application in perpendicular magnetic recording 35 . For the SL sample, an easy-axis coercivity of 0.004 T and saturation magnetization of 1.2×10 6 A/m were obtained which are close to the values of our previous report 30 . These results prove that, under the current film growth conditions, HL and SL films with good structural and magnetic properties can be obtained.…”

“…2. All samples exhibit three main peaks at 39.6 o , 42.1 o , and 43.1 o which correspond to Pt (111), Ru (002), and Co 72 Pt 28 /Co 81 Ir 19 (002) peaks 30,34 , respectively. The minor peak at 47.7 o comes from the Si substrate.…”

“…One can see that FWHM increases with the SL thickness being consistent with the gradual increase in intensity of the SL sub-peak, inline with the gradual increase of the volume fraction of the SL. Importantly, the only observable (002) peak for the Co 72 Pt surface 30,32,34 .…”

“…To be exact, SL=Fe, Co and Co 100−x Ir x with x=23, 29 and 33 systems were prepared and these samples will be denoted as HL/(Fe,Co) and HL/SL (23,29,33), respectively. Note, that all Co 100−x Ir x with x=19, 23, 29 and 33 samples have the same crystal structure 30,31 .…”

“…Therefore, we report detailed studies on the reduction of its coercivity of the Co 72 Pt 28 /Co 100−x Ir x ECC system. By changing the Ir content of the Co 100−x Ir x SL, its MA can be tuned 30,31 . Here, positive MA means that the easy axis of the magnetic material is along its crystallographic c-axis and negative MA, on the other hand, means that the easy axis is within its ab-plane.…”