Effects of Co/Sm Composition on the Ordered Phase Formation in Sm-Co Thin Films Grown on Cu(111) Single-Crystal Underlayers

Abstract

Sm-Co thin films were prepared on Cu(111) single-crystal underlayers by changing the Sm composition from 12 to 35 at.% and the effects of Co/Sm composition on the ordered phase formation were investigated. The epitaxial SmCo 5 thin films were obtained for all samples. The SmCo 5 epitaxial layer grown on Cu underlayer has two different types of domains whose orientations are rotated around film normal by 30 degrees to each other. Cu atoms substitute a part of the Co sites in the SmCo 5 structure, and an alloy compound of Sm(Co,Cu) 5 phase was formed for all samples. The Sm(Co,Cu) 5 phase was more Cu enriched with increasing the Sm composition. The Cu atom diffusion into Sm-Co layer plays an important role in assisting the formation of Sm(Co,Cu) 5 ordered phase.Index Terms-Cu(111) single-crystal underlayer, epitaxial growth, ordered phase, SmCo 5 thin film.

Development of Media Nanostructure for Perpendicular Magnetic Recording

“…For application to PMR media, the Ku should be larger than the magneto-static energy (2πMs 2 ), thus a relation, Ku > 2πMs 2 , must be satisfied. The materials above the Ku = 2πMs 2 line shown in [130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137] or a Ru(0001) underlayer 138) .…”

“…Amorphous phases tend to be mixed with RT5-ordered crystals when the composition shifts from the optimum ranges which depend delicately on the R-T material combination 130,134) . Substrate temperature higher than 500 °C is necessary for the preparation of RT5-type epitaxial thin films on Cu(111) and Ru (0001) underlayers.…”

“…Concerning the preparation and the characterization of other-type ordered alloy films of RT5, L11-CoPt, Bh-CoPt, and DO19-Co3Pt, they are reported in the references [130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138][139][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172] .…”

Formation of SmFe5(0001) ordered alloy thin films on Cu(111) single-crystal underlayers

“…High K u magnetic thin films of rare earth-transition metal alloys like SmCo 5 have attracted much attention to applications for magnetic recording media, thin film magnets, etc. For such applications, high-quality epitaxial thin films are the strong candidates since the film uniformity and the magnetic anisotropy are well controlled, and can be fabricated into nano-patterns.…”

“…For magnetic recording media applications, high K u magnetic thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy have been investigated. SmCo 5 polycrystalline [1][2][3][4] and SmCo 5 epitaxial [5][6][7] thin films with (0001) texture have been prepared by employing Cu(111) underlayers. Cu atom dissolution is known to stabilize the ordered phase formation through forming an alloy compound of Sm(Co,Cu) 5 [4,5,8].…”