Annealing effects in electrodeposited amorphous Co-P alloys

Abstract We observed how perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, present in electrodeposited amorphous Co-P alloys, changes during heat treatment in the presence or absence of a magnetic field. The results show that, apart from “columnar” shape anisotropy, there are other mechanisms of anisotropy present in the samples, first a stress anisotropy which can reach a value close to that reached by shape anisotropy and second directional-order anisotropy of smaller magnitude than that due to stress. The latter only occurs when the sample is heated to over 140°C.