Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 11: Magnetic Thin Films I

MA 11.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 10:30–10:45, H10

Epitaxial Nd-Fe-B films grown on Mo buffers — •Ah-Ram Kwon, Sebastian Fähler, Volker Neu, Ruben Hühne, Bernhard Holzapfel, and Ludwig Schultz — IFW Dresden, P.O. Box 270116, D-01171 Dresden

Nd-Fe-B films are attractive for perpendicular magnetic recording due to the typically achieved c-axis texture and therefore high perpendicular anisotropy. Magnetic recording requires smooth film surfaces, in contrast to the rough morphology and discontinuous growth observed for thin films deposited on Ta or W. In order to achieve epitaxial growth with full control of the crystallite orientation, a Mo buffer layer is grown on MgO(100), MgO buffered Si(100) and TiN-IBAD(100) substrates by pulse laser deposition. Prepared directly on MgO(100) substrates, Mo grows epitaxially with a (00l) orientation and Nd-Fe-B films onto this buffer possess the desired (00l) out-of-plane orientation with one in-plane epitaxy relation. These films have smoother and continuous surfaces than earlier prepared films on Ta and the magnetic contrast reveals continuous band domains. At 520 °C, films show the largest magnetic anisotropy. Saturation magnetization reaches 1.5 T, but coercivity is low (Hc < 0.5 T) due to the continuous film microstructure. MgO buffered Si substrates behave differently from MgO substrates. MgO grows fiber textured, and Mo grows with both (110) and (100) orientations.