Microstructure and magnetic properties studies of SmCo5 thin films grown on MgO and glass substrates

Abstract

In this work, SmCo5 thin films are deposited on single crystal MgO (1 0 0) and amorphous glass substrates with a Cr underlayer at 400 °C by sputtering. A comparison study shows that the microstructures and magnetic properties are different in the two SmCo5 films on the MgO (1 0 0) and glass substrates, respectively. An epitaxial growth of Cr-(2 0 0)〈1 1 0〉/SmCo5-(1 1 2̄ 0)〈0 0 0 1〉 is achieved on the MgO (1 0 0) single crystal substrate with an average grain size of 20 nm for SmCo5. On the amorphous glass substrate, no significant crystallographic texture is found in the Cr underlayer. After the deposition of SmCo5, a weak texture of (1 1 2̄ 0) is observed with an average grain size of 8 nm. High remanence ratio value in this film is probably due to strong exchange coupling. Both SmCo5 films show high in-plane coercivity, high in-plane anisotropy and remanence enhancement. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.