Effect of deposition temperature on morphological, magnetic and elastic properties of ultrathin Co49Pt51 films

Morphological, magnetic and elastic properties of 5 nm-thick Co49Pt51 films, sputtered on glass substrates, with 20 nm-thick Ta (seed) and Pt (buffer) layers were studied as function of the deposition temperature Td ranging between room temperature and 350° C. Atomic and magnetic force microscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer and Brillouin light scattering techniques were used to investigate the root mean square (RMS) roughness, the magnetic domain configuration, the coercive field (Hc), the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), and the dynamic magnetic and elastic properties of the films with Td. The results show that surface uniformity was enhanced since the RMS roughness decreases with Td while magnetic domains typical of films with high PMA are observed. Hc and PMA are found to sensibly increase with Td. The dynamic magnetization behavior is characterized by magnetic modes related with the co-existence of hard and soft magnetic areas within the samples. The elastic properties of the stack were first analyzed by means of a model describing the main variation of the elastic wave frequencies within the frame of weighted average thickness, density, Young's modulus and Poisson coefficient of all the layers constituting the stacks. However, while Hc and PMA keep increasing with Td, a more precise experimental analysis of the mechanical behavior shows that the group velocity starts increasing and finally decreases with Td, suggesting that knowledge of the influence of Td on the mechanical properties of each individual layer composing the stack is required to obtain a more accurate analysis.