Quantitative analysis of the oxidation of amorphous Gd-Co-Mo films

In former papers the authors developed a model for the perpendicular anisotropy in evaporated or low bias sputtered amorphous RE-TM films. The model basically assumes anisotropic oxidation of gadolinium along column boundaries through the film thickness. Quantitative determinations of the gadolinium oxide content through the film thickness and the changes of the composition profile after annealing, as measured by Auger spectroscopy combined with depth profiling, confirms the proposed model.