Measurement of stacking fault densities in CoCrPt thin film media using grazing incidence x-ray scattering

Abstract

In this work, synchrotron x-ray measurements are reported on a set of CoCrPt media grown on NiP/Al substrates in varying base pressures. A grazing incidence geometry was employed to eliminate the large background scatter from the underlayers and amorphous substrate. The percentage of stacking faults was found to increase with increasing base pressure, varying from 9% to 30% for samples grown at 10−8 and 10−4 Torr, respectively. We have also found that the in-plane c-axis orientation is destroyed when the sample is grown at the highest base pressure of 10−4 Torr. These structural differences are found to correlate well with the magnetic properties of the media.

Epitaxial Ni nanoparticles on CaF2(001), (110) and (111) surfaces studied by three-dimensional RHEED, GIXD and GISAXS reciprocal-space mapping techniques

“…It would be interesting to understand the influence of both effects on defect formation, in particular on the formation of stacking faults. The latter are known to occur frequently in metals (Wilson et al, 1942;Paterson, 1952) and to be responsible for high levels of magnetic viscosity, deteriorating the recording performance of Co-alloy media (Holloway & Laidler, 2000). In epitaxial structures, the stacking faults often appear to reduce the elastic strain caused by misfit between the film and the substrate.…”

Effects of substrate bias on magnetocrystalline anisotropy Ku of CoPt thin films with increasing Pt content

“…It is known that the grains containing SFs and fcc phases along the c axis of a hcp crystal structure will cause a K u reduction due to the magnetic soft nature of these defects. [1][2][3][4][5][6] This explains the trend that the K u of continuous Co 1−x Pt x alloy films peaks at ϳ30 at. % of Pt and decreases quickly with further increase in Pt at.…”

The XMaS beamline at ESRF: instrumental developments and high-resolution diffraction studies

“…In each case the stacking model produces the excellent straight-line fit to the data sets. These results lead to a quantitative assessment of the effect of stacking faults on the magnetisation reversal) provide a fundamental understanding of the underpinning role of magnetocrystalline anisotropy in the magnetisation reversal in Co-based thin films (Holloway & Laidler, 2000) and in determining the origins of time-dependent magnetisation in these technologically important materials (Weller & Doerner, 2000).…”