Correlations among sputter pressure, thickness, and coercivity in co/cu magnetic thin films sputfer-deposited on si[001]

We demonstrate the effect of sputter gas pressure and film thickness, d, on the coercivity of Co in Al/Co/Cu sputter-deposited on Si(001). Increased sputter gas pressure produces increased rms roughness and increased O content in our films. The deposited Co thickness at which the onset of ferromagnetism is first observed, d c , increases with sputter gas pressure. Above this thickness, d > d c , the coercivity increases with increasing Co thickness. For film thickness d » d c , the coercivity is thickness independent. We show that coercivity is directly controllable at technologically relevant thicknesses by regulating sputter-deposition parameters.