Preventing dewetting during rapid-thermal annealing of FePt films with enhanced L10 ordering by introducing Ag cap-layers

•Dewetting of (001) FePt fims were suppressed by introducing Ag cap layers.•Ag layers enhanced in-plane tensile stress, (001) texture and L10 ordering.•Irrespective of Ag thickness, the Ag/FePt films exhibited strong (001) texture.

High-order FePt continuous films with a strong (001) texture were fabricated on a glass substrate by introducing Ag layers and rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The dewetting of the (001)-textured FePt was suppressed during RTA with high heating rates (>80 K/s). The Ag cap layers not only increased the in-plane tensile stress, but also improved the (001) anisotropy and L10 ordering of the FePt layers. All continuous Ag/FePt bilayer films possessed strong perpendicular anisotropies and high-ordered states irrespective of the Ag layer thickness.