Mössbauer study of the field induced uniaxial anisotropy in electro-deposited FeCo alloy films

Abstract

Thin ferromagnetic films with in-plane magnetic anisotropy are promising materials for obtaining high microwave permeability. The paper reports a Mössbauer study of the field induced in-plane uniaxial anisotropy in electro-deposited FeCo alloy films. The FeCo alloy films were prepared by the electro-deposition method with and without an external magnetic field applied parallel to the film plane during deposition. Vibrating sample magnetometry and Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements at room temperature indicate that the film deposited in external field shows an in-plane uniaxial anisotropy with an easy direction coinciding with the external field direction and a hard direction perpendicular to the field direction, whereas the film deposited without external field does not show any in-plane anisotropy. Mössbauer spectra taken in three geometric arrangements show that the magnetic moments are almost constrained in the film plane for the film deposited with applied magnetic field. Also, the magnetic moments tend to align in the direction of the applied external magnetic field during deposition, indicating that the observed anisotropy should be attributed to directional ordering of atomic pairs.