Effect of the annealing temperature on dynamic and structural properties of Co2FeAl thin films

Abstract

10 nm and 50 nm thick Co2FeAl (CFA) thin films have been deposited on thermally oxidized Si(001) substrates by magnetron sputtering using a Tantalum cap layer and were then ex-situ annealed at 415°C, 515°C and 615°C during 15 minutes in vacuum. X-rays diffraction indicates that films CFA are polycrystalline and exhibit an in-plane isotropy growth. Ferromagnetic resonance measurements, using a microstrip line (MS-FMR), reveal a huge interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and small in-plane uniaxial anisotropy both annealing temperature-dependent. The MS-FMR data also allow concluding that the gyromagnetic factor remains constant and that the exchange stiffness constant increases with annealing temperature. Finally, the FMR linewidth decreases with increasing annealing temperature due to the enhancement of the chemical order, and allow deriving a very low intrinsic damping parameter (1.3×10-3 at 615°C). © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014.