Soft magnetic properties and damping parameter of (FeCo)-Al alloy thin films

For high frequency device applications, a systematic study of the soft magnetic properties and magnetization dynamics of (FeCo)-Al alloy thin films has been carried out. A low effective damping parameter αeff of 0.002 and a high saturation magnetization of about 1,800 emu/cc are obtained at y=0.2∼0.3 for (Fe1-yCoy)98Al2 alloy thin films deposited onto fused silica and MgO(100) at an ambient temperature during deposition. Those films are of the bcc structure with the orientation normal to the film plane. They possess a columnar structure, grown along the film normal. The column width is found to be about 20 nm for y=0.25. It is concluded that the (FeCo)-Al thin films with a damping parameter as low as 0.002 and high saturation magnetization of about 1,800 emu/cc have been successfully fabricated, and that they are potential for future high frequency device applications.