Thickness dependent coercivity in sputtered Co/Pt multilayers

Author

Weller, D. ; Notarys, H. ; Suzuki, T. ; Gorman, G. ; Logan, T. ; McFadyen, I. ; Chien, C.J.

Author_Institution

IBM Alamden Res. Center, San Jose, CA, USA

Volume

28

Issue

5

fYear

1992

fDate

9/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2500

Lastpage

2502

Abstract

Sputtered Co/Pt multilayers grown on etched SiN_x buffers exhibit large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and show a striking thickness dependence of the perpendicular coercivity. H_C^⊥ of a series of N_x(0.3 nm Co/1.1 nm Pt) multilayers varies from 0 to 3.3 kOe, with a linear rise in the range 2⩽N⩽13, and saturates in the range 13⩽N⩽30. This behavior does not correlate with the column diameters and vertical grain sizes determined from XTEM and XRD (X-ray diffraction) measurements, and is interpreted in terms of nanometer rather than micrometer scale defects, which are responsible for domain wall pinning and nucleation in the present films

Keywords

X-ray diffraction examination of materials; cobalt; coercive force; magnetic anisotropy; magnetic domain walls; magnetic hysteresis; magnetic multilayers; platinum; sputtered coatings; transmission electron microscope examination of materials; Kerr hysteresis loop; X-ray diffraction; XTEM; column diameters; domain wall pinning; etched SiN_x buffers; nanometre scale defects; nucleation; perpendicular coercivity; perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; sputtered Co-Pt multilayers; thickness dependence; vertical grain size; Coercive force; Grain size; Magnetic multilayers; Nonhomogeneous media; Nuclear measurements; Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; Silicon compounds; Sputter etching; X-ray diffraction; X-ray scattering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.179536

Filename

179536