Thin Solid Films, Vol.519, No.19, 6420-6425, 2011
Effect of deposition temperature on morphology and magnetic properties of Co50Fe50 thin films produced by femtosecond pulsed laser deposition
Deposition temperature effect on morphological, topological and magnetic characteristics of nanoparticle-assembled Co50Fe50 films produced by femtosecond pulsed laser deposition (fs-PLD) on Kapton substrate was investigated. For substrate temperature T-s >= 550 K, a decrement of the nanoparticle's aggregates and an increment of the nanoparticle's density were observed with respect to room temperature deposition; this in association with a strong increase of the magnetoelastic anisotropy energy lead to a reduction of the remanence ratio, a significant rise of the saturation and coercive fields and an enhancement of the saturation magnetization. The results are discussed focusing on: i) the correlation between films structure and their magnetic behavior; ii) the role of the different anisotropy energies in determining the harder in-plane magnetic behavior for T-s >= 550 K. The thermal strain of Kapton substrate holds an important role in generating morphological and topological characteristics of the fs-PLD films and corresponding magnetic properties. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Femtosecond pulsed laser deposition;Substrate temperature;Magnetic nanoparticle-assembled films;Magnetoelastic anisotropy