Low-temperature ordering of (001) granular FePt films by inserting ultrathin Si O2 layers

Abstract

L 10 granular FePt-Si O2 films with a (001) preferred orientation and well-separated grains of 5.14 nm were obtained by depositing atomic-scale FePtSi O2 multilayers (MLs) on glass substrates and subsequently annealing MLs at a temperature of 350 °C. Large out-of-plane coercivity of 7700 Oe and a high ordering factor of 0.83 were achieved. Alternate atomic-scale depositions promoted the formation of (001) textures. Furthermore, because of the low surface energy of Si O2 layers, Si O2 tended to diffuse into grain boundaries of FePt during annealing, which may accelerate diffusion of Fe and Pt atoms, resulting in the low-temperature ordering. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.