Influence of annealing on the structural properties of evaporated Co

Series of CoxCr1−x thin films have been evaporated under vacuum onto Si(1 0 0) and glass substrates, x ranging from 0.80 to 0.88; these chemical composition values are provided by modeling Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) spectra using SIMNRA program. Thickness ranges from 17 to 220 nm. Microscopic characterizations of the films have been performed with X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The samples have been annealed for 1 h at 700 °C. All the as deposited samples are polycrystalline, with an hcp structure and show a 〈0 0 0 1〉 preferred orientation. The annealed samples, on the contrary, present hcp and fcc phases. The as deposited films are under a compressive stress while the annealed films are under a tensile stress. Grain sizes increase with chromium content decrease and are higher for the annealed films. Excellent orientations of the CoCr crystallites around the normal to the film plane have been observed, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) ranging from 0.49° to 0.79°

Ferromagnetic resonance in evaporated Co∕Si(100) and Co∕glass thin films

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Effect of grain misorientation on the stripe domains in evaporated cobalt films

X-ray diffraction and magnetic force microscopy techniques were used to investigate the structural and the static magnetic properties of vapor-deposited cobalt films with various thicknesses t ranging from 50 to 195 nm. Texture measurements revealed that as the thickness increases, the films become predominantly c-axis oriented. Magnetic stripe domains structure was only observed for the thicker films, with t=195, 173 and 125 nm, while such a magnetic configuration was expected for all the samples based on the theoretical studies. Since the layers present increasing c-axis misorientation when the thickness decreases, we assume that this effect can prevent the stripe domains formation. This behavior is qualitatively explained by a simple model which describes the stripe domains structure taking into account the role of a small misorientation of the anisotropy axis

Effect of grain misorientation on the stripe domains in evaporated cobalt films

X-ray diffraction and magnetic force microscopy techniques were used to investigate the structural and the static magnetic properties of vapor-deposited cobalt films with various thicknesses t ranging from 50 to 195 nm. Texture measurements revealed that as the thickness increases, the films become predominantly c-axis oriented. Magnetic stripe domains structure was only observed for the thicker films, with t=195, 173 and 125 nm, while such a magnetic configuration was expected for all the samples based on the theoretical studies. Since the layers present increasing c-axis misorientation when the thickness decreases, we assume that this effect can prevent the stripe domains formation. This behavior is qualitatively explained by a simple model which describes the stripe domains structure taking into account the role of a small misorientation of the anisotropy axis. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2005