Magnetic anisotropy of Co thin films: Playing with the shadowing effect, magnetic field and substrate spinning

The shape and magneto-crystalline anisotropies of 10 nm thick Co sputtered films have shown to be dependent on the oblique deposition angle (αi), the angular velocity of the substrate-holder (ωS) and the applied magnetic field (H0) during the deposition. Oblique deposition geometry is natural in our sputtering setup, being α equal to 22° at the edge of 4 in. sample-holder and 32° at its central part. X-ray diffraction analysis has evidenced a (111) texturized fcc structure for all films. Ferromagnetic resonance has shown that samples prepared under H0 of 250 Oe present dominantly the uniaxial HU field contribution independent of the ωS-value, however its magnitude depends on αi. For a non-magnetic holder, Co films show a mixture of twofold (uniaxial) with fourfold (cubic) in-plane magnetic anisotropies. The fourfold contribution is small and it is not influenced by αi or ωS within the experimental error, while the dominant twofold contribution, which is governed by the shadowing effect, is reduced for higher ωS and for samples positioned at the center of the sample-holder. In addition, the intrinsic isotropic Gilbert damping dominates the relaxation process, which is followed by anisotropic twofold scattering mechanism due to stripes and defects, interestingly not influenced by the substrate rotation during depositions.