Controlling magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial FePt(001) films

Abstract

Epitaxial equiatomic Fe50Pt50 thin films with a variable order parameter ranging from 0 to 0.9 and Fe100−xPtx thin films with x ranging from 33 to 50 were deposited on MgO (001) substrates by dc sputtering. A seed layer consisting of nonmagnetic Cr (4nm)∕Pt (12nm) was used to promote the crystallinity of the magnetic films. The crystal structure and magnetic properties were gauged using x-ray diffraction and magnetometry. The magnetic anisotropy can be controlled by changing the order parameter. For Fe100−xPtx films, the increase in Fe composition leads to an increase in coercivity in the hard axis loop and causes a loss of perpendicular anisotropy.