Magnetic properties of Co35Pd65 films made by oblique-incidence deposition

Abstract The structural properties of the Co 35 Pd 65 films, made by oblique-incidence deposition, were discussed from the X-ray rocking curve studies. For the purpose of this study, these samples were used again for the stress and the magnetic hysteresis measurements, respectively. The intrinsic stress of these films is tensile and of the order of 10 9 –10 10  dyn/cm 2 . In general, if the film thickness t > t C ≅500–700 A, the sample exhibits the characteristics of the out-of-film-plane (or normal) anisotropy. On the other hand, if t t C , the film shape and the dispersion effect in the sample becomes so large that magnetization is almost in-plane. Besides, as t is fixed and t > t C , the dispersion effect in the α =45° film is larger than that in the α =0° film, where α is the angle of incidence. Three possible mechanisms, i.e. the magnetostatic, the magnetocrystalline, and the magnetoelastic mechanisms, are proposed to explain the magnetic anisotropy phenomena observed in these Co 35 Pd 65 films. From model calculations, it is concluded that the last mechanism is the most likely to account for the anisotropy. Finally, based on the magnetocrystalline effect, the variations of the degree of magnetic dispersion, due to the change of α from 0 to 45°, are discussed briefly.