FePt L10 ordering and grain growth using millisecond pulse laser processing

The structural and magnetic properties of ∼12 nm thick FePt thin films grown on Si substrates annealed using a 1064 nm wavelength laser with a 10 ms pulse have been examined. The A1 to L1₀ ordering phase transformation was confirmed by electron and X-ray diffraction. An order parameter near 50% and a maximum coercivity of 12 kOe were obtained with laser energy densities of 25-32 J/cm². Grain growth, quantified by dark field transmission electron microscopy, occurred during chemical ordering at the laser pulse widths studied.     

L10 FePt thin films with [0 0 1] crystalline growth fabricated by SiO2 addition—rapid thermal annealing and dot patterning of the films

FePt films that have a high degree of order S in their L1₀ structure (S>0.90) and well-defined [0 0 1] crystalline growth perpendicular to the film plane were fabricated on thermally oxidized Si substrates by the addition of an oxide and successive rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The mechanism of L1₀ ordering and [0 0 1] crystalline growth perpendicular to the film plane arising through the oxide addition and RTA process is also discussed. The L1₀ ordering (S>0.90) and the [0 0 1] crystalline growth were achieved by (1) lowering the activation energy due to in-plane tensile stress and the initiation of L1₀ ordering at a low temperature, (2) [0 0 1] crystalline growth through in-plane tensile stress, and (3) enhancement of atomic diffusion via the addition of an oxide and the resultant lowering of the ordering temperature. Effect (1) was observed in the case of SiO₂ addition, effect (2) was generally observed in the case of oxide addition and the RTA process, and effect (3) was prominent in the case of ZnO addition. With the addition of ZnO, the L1₀ ordering started at below 400 °C and was completed at 500 °C. Finally, dot patterns were successfully fabricated down to a diameter of 15 nm using electron beam lithography, and the magnetic state of the dot pattern was observed by magnetic force microscopy.     

Amorphous Ni-Al underlayer-accelerated L10 ordering transition of FePt thin films

In the present study, we succeeded in accelerating the L1₀ ordering transition of FePt thin films by employing amorphous Ni-Al as underlayers. The coercivity H_c = 5 kOe and ordering parameter S = 0.67 of FePt thin films deposited on a Ni-Al underlayer with a thickness of ∼5 nm after 380 °C annealing for 30 min are significantly higher than those H_c = 0.4 kOe and S = 0.35 of the films without the Ni-Al underlayer. The L1₀ ordering process of and the coercivity of FePt thin films can be significantly tuned by varying the thickness of the Ni-Al underlayer.     

利用FePt/Au多层膜结构制备垂直磁记录L10-FePt薄膜

利用磁控溅射方法在100℃的MgO单晶基片上制备了［FePt/Au］₁₀多层膜,并研究了采用FePt/Au多层膜结构对FePt薄膜的有序化温度、矫顽力（H_C）、垂直磁各向异性、晶粒尺寸以及颗粒间磁交换耦合作用的影响.磁性测试结果表明：FePt/Au多层膜在退火后具有较高的H_C、良好的垂直磁各向异性、较小的晶粒尺寸且无磁交换耦合作用.截面高分辨电镜分析表明：Au可以缓解MgO和FePt之间较大的晶格错配,从而促进薄 关键词： 0-FePt薄膜')" href="#">L1₀-FePt薄膜 有序化温度 垂直磁各向异性 磁交换耦合作用     

室温生长MgO底层诱导(001)取向FePt薄膜的有序化过程对FePt成分的依赖

室温下通过磁控溅射在表面热氧化的Si基片上生长了MgO/Fe_xPt_100-x双层膜和Fe_xPt_100-x单层膜系列样品，Fe_xPt_100-x的原子成分x=48—68.研究了热处理前后不同成分FePt薄膜的晶体结构和磁性的变化，尤其是MgO底层的引入对FePt的晶体结构和磁性的影响 关键词： FePt(001)薄膜 0相')" href="#">L1₀相     

Ordering temperature of L10-type FePt films reduced by CuO addition

Effects of addition of CuO layers in L1₀-type FePt thin films are investigated. The ordering temperature of L1₀-type FePt films can be reduced by CuO addition. The coercivities of 0.78 and 0.82 T are achieved in [Pt(10 Å)/Fe(14 Å)/CuO(2 Å)]₁₀ film annealed at 550 °C for 20 min and [Pt(10 Å)/Fe(15 Å)/CuO(3 Å)]₁₀ film annealed at 600 °C for 20 min, respectively, and these values are compared to the coercivity of 0.8 T in [Pt(10 Å)/Fe(13 Å)]₁₀ film annealed at 650 °C. The thickness of Fe and CuO layers strongly influences the ordering temperature of L1₀-type FePt and the magnetic properties of the films. The addition of CuO not only brings microstructure and surface morphology changes of FePt film, but also lowers the ordering temperature.     

Low-temperature deposition of L10 FePt films for ultra-high density magnetic recording

A method based on strain-induced phase transformation was used to lower the ordering temperature of FePt films. The strain resulted from the lattice mismatch between the FePt film and the substrate or underlayer favored the ordering. The relationships between the lattice mismatch, the ordering of FePt film, and the corresponding magnetic anisotropic constant were investigated. A critical lattice mismatch near 6.33% was believed to be most suitable for improving the chemical ordering of the FePt films. CrX (X=Ru, Mo, W, Ti) alloys with (2 0 0) texture was used to control the easy axis and ordering temperature of FePt films on glass substrate. Large uniaxial anisotropy constant K_u?1×10⁷ erg/cm³, good magnetic squareness (∼1) and FePt(0 0 1) texture (rocking curve −5°) were obtained at the temperature T_s?250 °C when using CrRu underlayer. The diffusion from overlying layers of Ag and Cu and an inserted Ag pinning layer were effective in reducing the exchange decoupling and changing the magnetization reversal. The media noise was effectively reduced and the SNR was remarkably enhanced when a 2 nm Ag was inserted.     

Granular L10 FePt (0 0 1) thin films for Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording

Granular L1₀ FePt (0 0 1) thin films were deposited on a Si substrate with Ta/MgO underlayers by rf sputtering. The effects of in-situ heating temperatures (350-575 °C), pressures (2-40 mTorr), and sputtering powers (15-75 W) on texture and microstructure were investigated for the FePt films. We obtained films with grain densities approaching 50 teragrains per in.², grains sizes down to 2.2 nm with center-to-center spacing of 4.2 nm and coercivity of 24 kOe. The order parameters for the L1₀ FePt thin films were derived and calculated to be as high as 0.91. Although the grain size is small, the spacing between grains is too large for practical heat assisted magnetic recording media. To reach the desired results, we propose that layer-by-layer growth should be promoted in the FePt layer by inserting another underlayer that provides a better lattice match to L1₀ FePt.     

垂直取向FePt/Ag纳米颗粒薄膜的结构和磁性

用磁控溅射法在单晶MgO(100)基片上制备了［FePt 2 nm/Ag dnm］₁₀多层膜， 经真空热处理后，得到具有高矫顽力的垂直取向L1₀-FePt/Ag颗粒膜.x射线衍射结 果表明，在250 ℃的热基片上溅射，当Ag层厚度d=3—11 nm时，FePt颗粒具有很好的［001］取向，随着Ag层厚度的增加，FePt颗粒尺寸减小.［FePt 2 nm/Ag 9 nm］₁₀经过6 00 ℃真空热处理15 min后，颗粒大小仅约8 nm，垂直矫顽力达到692 kA/m.这种无磁耦合作用的颗粒膜，适合用作超高密度的垂直磁记录介质. 关键词： 磁控溅射 垂直磁记录 纳米颗粒膜 0-FePt/Ag')" href="#">L1₀-FePt/Ag     

Understanding magnetic properties of arrays of small FePt dots with perpendicular anisotropy

FePt dot arrays with dot size down to 15 nm are fabricated by film annealing and patterning. The array coercivity shows an increase with dot size decreasing from 100 to 30 nm, and a slight reduction for the 15 nm dot sample. Annealing these dot arrays at higher temperatures results in large enhancements in the coercivities, except the 15 nm dot array where the coercivity increases a little. Micromagnetic models of a 15 nm FePt dot with uniform and nonuniform edges of soft magnetic defects and with inside defects are calculated to reveal the microstructure origins of the dot magnetic properties. It is found that the volume fraction of the L1₀-phase FePt with perpendicular c-axis orientation is about 50% in the dot and the switching field distribution of the dot array can be influenced significantly by the defect arrangement in the dots.     

Sparse hyperspectral unmixing using an approximate L0 norm

Sparse unmixing aims at finding an optimal subset of spectral signatures in a large spectral library to effectively model each pixel in the hyperspectral image and compute their fractional abundances. In most previous work concerned with the sparse unmixing, L₂ norm is used to measure the error tolerance and the L₁ norm is added as the sparsity regularization. However, in some applications, using L₁ norm to measure the error tolerance has significant robustness advantages over the L₂ norm. Besides, in some cases, using a smooth function to approximate the L₀ norm can obtain more accurate results than the L₁ norm in the field of sparse regression. Thus, in this paper, we consider the two alternative choices for sparse unmixing. A reweighted iteration algorithm is also proposed so that the unconvex regularizer (smoothed L₀ norm) can be efficiently solved through transforming it into a series of weighted L₁ regularizer problems. Experimental results on both synthetic and real hyperspectral data demonstrate the efficacy of the new models.     

Effect of Cr100−xTix (x = 0-19 at.%) alloy underlayers on the high coercivity of FePt thin film below the substrate temperature of 250 °C

The effect of Cr_100−xTi_x underlayer on orderd-L1₀ FePt films was investigated. A low-temperature ordering of FePt films could be attained through changing the Ti content of Cr_100−xTi_x underlayer. The ordering temperature of the 30 nm FePt film grown on 20 nm Cr₉₀Ti₁₀ underlayer was reduced to 250 °C which is practical manufacture process temperature. An in-plane coercivity was very high to 6000 Oe and a ratio of remnant magnetization (M_r) to saturation magnetization (M_s) was as large as 0.85. This result indicates that the coercivity obtained at 250 °C by the effect of CrTi underlayer is significantly higher than those obtained at 250-275 °C by the effect of underlayers in other conventional studies. The prominent improvement of the magnetic properties of ordered FePt thin films at low temperature of 250 °C could be understood with considering the strain-induced ordering phase transformation associated with lattice mismatch between Cr underlayer and FePt magnetic layer due to an addition of Ti content.     

Sm–Co and Nd–Fe–B thin films with perpendicular anisotropy for high-density magnetic recording media

Sm–Co and Nd–Fe-B thin films have been prepared by sputtering. Particular efforts are concentrated on the perpendicular texture growth of the films. The Sm–Co and Nd–Fe–B thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy can be prepared on Cu and W underlayer, respectively. Those underlayers play an important role to prevent oxidation and improve crystal lattice orientation. Perpendicular coercivity and remanent squareness ratio are higher than 10 kOe and almost 1.0, respectively, in both films prepared under optimum conditions.     

(0 0 1) Exchange-coupled FCC/L10 FePt bilayers

Exchange coupling between hard and soft magnetic materials has implications for both permanent magnet and magnetic recording technologies. This paper looks at exchange coupling of FCC FePt epitaxially grown onto (0 0 1) oriented L1₀ FePt deposited on (0 0 1) MgO substrates at elevated temperature. By varying the thickness of the FCC layer there is a relaxation of the single crystal FCC layer that produces a polycrystalline microstructure as evidenced by the development of rings in the electron diffraction pattern. A concurrent decoupling of the layers is apparent from magnetization curves with two distinct switching fields as the FCC layer thickness is increased above 20 nm. The results shown here confirm the importance of the epitaxial relationship between materials of disparate anisotropies in maintaining strong exchange coupling.     

Low-temperature ordering and enhanced coercivity of L10-FePt thin films with Al underlayer

FePt multilayer films with and without Al underlayer were prepared by magnetron sputtering on SiO₂ substrate and subsequently annealed in vacuum. Experimental results suggest that the existence of Al underlayer can effectively reduce the ordering temperature and increase the coercivity of FePt films. Due to the slight larger lattice constant of Al underlayer than that of FePt films, [Fe (0.66 nm)/Pt (0.84 nm)]₃₀ films begin to order at 350 °C and the coercivity of them reach to 5.7 kOe after annealing at 400 °C for half an hour.     

Growth of Al2O3 thin films on NiAl(1 0 0) by gas-phase oxidation and electro-oxidation

The growth and structures of aluminum oxides on NiAl(1 0 0) have been investigated by RHEED (reflection high energy electron diffraction), complemented by LEED (low energy electron diffraction), AES (Auger electron spectroscopy) and STM (scanning tunneling microscopy). Crystalline θ-Al₂O₃ phase grows through gas-phase oxidation on the NiAl(1 0 0) substrate with its a and b-axes parallel to [0 −1 0] and [0 0 1] direction of the substrate, respectively, forming a (2 × 1) unit cell. Whilst, three-dimensional nano-sized NiAl(1 0 0) protrusions and Al₂O₃, NiAl(0 1 1) clusters were found to co-exit at the surface, evidenced by extraordinary transmission spots superposed to the substrate reflection rods in the RHEED patterns. Particularly, the NiAl(0 1 1) clusters develop with their (0 1 1) plane parallel to the NiAl(1 0 0) surface, and [1 0 0] axis parallel to the [0 −1 1] direction of the substrate surface. STM observation combined with information from AES and TPD (temperature programmed desorption) suggest the formation of these 3D structures is closely associated with partial decomposition of the crystalline oxides during annealing. On the other hand, smoother (2 × 1) oxide islands with thickness close to a complete monolayer of θ-Al₂O₃ can be formed on NiAl(1 0 0) by electro-oxidation, in contrast with the large crystalline films formed by gas-oxidation.     

Self-assembled L10 FePt thin films for high-density magnetic recording

A new technique, which utilizes the interlayer diffusion, for preparation of self-assembled nanodot magnetic structures has been proposed. L1₀-phase Pt/FeCu and Pt/FeAg films have been successfully synthesized by this technique. Both the coercivity of Pt/FeCu and Pt/FeAg films exhibited, respectively 4.1 and 8.0 kOe in perpendicular direction. Pt/Fe and Pt/FeAg films show positive values, while Pt/FeCu shows negative value in δm plot. The results indicate that the exchange coupling between the grains has been decoupled in the self-assembled nanodot structure in Pt/FeCu film.     

Epitaxial MoOx nanostructures on TiO2(1 1 0) obtained using thermal decomposition of Mo(CO)6

Stoichiometric and highly-defective TiO₂(1 1 0) surfaces (called as yellow and blue, respectively) were exposed to Mo(CO)₆ vapours in UHV and in a reactive O₂ atmosphere. In the case of yellow-TiO₂, an O₂ reactive atmosphere was necessary to obtain the Mo(CO)₆ decomposition at 450 °C with deposition of MoO_x nanostructures where, according to core level photoemission data, the Mo⁺⁴ state is predominant. In the case of blue-TiO₂ it was possible to obtain Mo deposition both in UHV and in an O₂ atmosphere. A high dose of Mo(CO)₆ in UHV on blue-TiO₂ allowed the deposition of a thick metallic Mo layer. An air treatment of this sample at 580 °C led to the elimination of Mo as MoO₃ and to the formation of a transformed layer of stoichiometry of Ti_(1−x)Mo_xO₂ (where x is close to 0.1) which, according to photoelectron diffraction data, can be described as a substitutional near-surface alloy, where Mo⁺⁴ ions are embedded into the titania lattice. This embedding procedure results in a stabilization of the Mo⁺⁴ ions, which are capable to survive to air exposure for a rather long period of time. After exposure of the blue-TiO₂(1 1 0) substrate to Mo(CO)₆ vapours at 450 °C in an O₂ atmosphere it was possible to obtain a MoO₂ epitaxial ultrathin layer, whose photoelectron diffraction data demonstrate that is pseudomorphic to the substrate.     

Adsorption of water on thin V2O3(0 0 0 1) films

V₂O₃(0 0 0 1) films have been grown epitaxially on Au(1 1 1) and W(1 1 0). Under typical UHV conditions these films are terminated by a layer of vanadyl groups as has been shown previously [A.-C. Dupuis, M. Abu Haija, B. Richter, H. Kuhlenbeck, H.-J. Freund, V₂O₃(0 0 0 1) on Au(1 1 1) and W(1 1 0): growth, termination and electronic structure, Surf. Sci. 539 (2003) 99]. Electron irradiation may remove the oxygen atoms of this layer. H₂O adsorption on the vanadyl terminated surface and on the reduced surface has been studied with thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS), vibrational spectroscopy (IRAS) and electron spectroscopy (XPS) using light from the BESSY II electron storage ring in Berlin. It is shown that water molecules interact only weakly with the vanadyl terminated surface: water is adsorbed molecularly and desorbs below room temperature. On the reduced surface water partially dissociates and forms a layer of hydroxyl groups which may be detected on the surface up to T ∼ 600 K. Below ∼330 K also co-adsorbed molecular water is detected. The water dissociation products desorb as molecular water which means that they recombine before desorption. No sign of surface re-oxidation could be detected after desorption, indicating that the dissociation products desorb completely.     

Influence of growth and anneal conditions on the surface roughness of L10 Fe50PdxPt50−x thin films

We deposit Fe₅₀Pd_xPt_50−x alloy thin films by magnetron sputtering onto a TiN seed layer. Chemically ordered L1₀ films are obtained which display large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We find that the surface roughness of the film depends strongly on the growth and anneal conditions as well as the Pd composition of the film. Smooth films are obtained by deposition above the chemical ordering temperature and by removing Pd from the alloy.