The Effects of Substrate Preheating and Post-Deposition Annealing on CrMn/CoCrPt/CrMn/NiAI Films

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, we examine the effects of introducing CrMn as an intermediate layer between the NiAI underlayer and the CoCrPt magnetic layer, and as an overlayer on top of the Co-alloy film. The effects of deposition temperature and post-deposition annealing on the texture and magnetic properties were studied. Post-deposition annealing effectively lowered the exchange coupling between grains, increased the coercivity by 38%, up to 4600 Oe, and moderately decreased the Ms by 15%. Interlayer diffusion of CrMn into the CoCrPt grain boundaries is believed to cause the change in magnetic properties. It was also found that granular exchange coupling seems to be correlated to the Co-alloy in-plane texture.