STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF AMORPHOUS TbFeCo ALLOY USING EXAFS FOR PERPENDICULAR MAGNETIC ANISOTROPY

A structural analysis of amorphous TbFeCo films has been performed by using EXAFS of as-deposited and annealed samples. It is found that the numbers of inplane Fe-Fe (and Fe-Co) pairs for as-deposited TbFeCo are larger than in the perpendicular direction. On the other hand, in the case of the annealed samples, the number of in-plane Fe-Fe pairs is smaller than in the perpendicular direction. Thus, the direction of the structural anisotropy of the TbFeCo film changes 90 degree due to the annealing procedure. However, the direction of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of the TbFeCo does not change before and after the annealing procedure.