A comparative structural and magnetic study of Fe100−xPdx(x=15, 20 and 36) thin films deposited on Si (100) and glass substrates

• Comparative study of Fe100−xPdx thin films deposited on the Si (100) and glass substrates.
• The films grown on Si (100) substrate shown that the coercivity is proportional to D6.
• Films grown on glass substrate shown that the coercivity is linearly proportional to 1/D.
• For Si substrate, a linear variation is obtained between the coercitivity and the d(110) spacing.
• For glass substrate, a linear variation is obtained between coercitivity and 1/d(110) spacing.

Various structural and magnetic characterization techniques have been used to investigate Fe100−xPdx (x=15, 20 and 36) thin films deposited onto silicon and glass substrates, by thermal evaporation technique. X-ray diffraction analysis shows the presence of supersaturated solid solution with bcc structure for Pd concentrations of 15% and 20%. However, for 36% of Pd, in addition to the supersaturated α-FePd (bcc) phase, another disordered FePd3 phase with fcc structure is present. At 20 at% Pd, the magnetic characterization shows a saturation of the bcc (α-FePd) phase and the appearance of the fcc phase. The correlation between the structure and magnetic properties allows us to compare the two substrates effects on deposited thin films. As results, the measurements indicate that the grain size D, the thin film thickness and the d(110) spacing significantly affect the magnetic coercivity HC. The Fe–Pd alloys deposited on a monocrystalline Si (100) and glass substrate show that the coercivity HC is given by the random anisotropy model.