Control of Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of FePt Films With TiN Intermediate Layer

The effects of a TiN intermediate layer on the microstructure and magnetic properties of the FePt films were investigated. It was found that the TiN layer could effectively block the diffusion of Cr into the FePt film. The good epitaxial relationships among these layers were revealed from the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results. With introducing TiN intermediate layer the chemical ordering and magnetic properties of FePt films significantly improved. The FePt film with 5 nm TiN exhibited a high perpendicular coercivity of 13.7 kOe and a low in-plane coercivity of 0.24 kOe, resulting from the combined contribution of TiN (200) orientation, TiN layer roughness and the effective block of Cr diffusion. Moreover, with doping C into the FePt-SiN_x films, the out-of-plane coercivity increased due to the decrease of the exchange coupling, the grain size of FePt films decreased, and well-separated FePt grains and uniform size were formed. By optimizing the sputtering process, the [FePt (4 nm)-SiN_x 40 vol·% ]- 20 vol·% C (001) film with coercivity higher than 21.5 kOe, a single layer structure, and small FePt grain size of 5.6 nm in average diameter was obtained, which are suitable for ultrahigh density perpendicular recording.