Study of Co/Pd multilayers as a candidate material for next generation magnetic media

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3544306· OSTI ID:21538091

Bing, Hu; Amos, Nissim; Yuan, Tian; Butler, John; Khizroev, Sakhrat ^[1]; Litvinov, Dmitri ^[2]

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1. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Riverside, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, California 92521 (United States)
2. Center for Nanomagnetic Systems, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204 (United States)

We report a combinatorial synthesis study on the magnetic properties of sputter-deposited Co/Pd multilayers with high perpendicular anisotropy and high remnant squareness for magnetic media applications such as magnetic logic systems, bit patterned media, magneto-optical recording, and multilevel three-dimensional (3D) magnetic media. The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in the multilayers originates from the interfacial anisotropy of the alloylike structure. The deposition conditions and subsequent microstructures of the multilayers are critical factors to determine the magnetic properties of the media. We investigated the dependence of the magnetic properties on the thickness of Co and Pd layers the number of Co/Pd bilayers. For instance, we found that a 0.26-nm-thick layer of Co would produce the highest coercivity value if paired with a 0.55-nm-thick Pd layer. Our results revealed that an Ar{sup +} milling could significantly increase the coercivity of the multilayer media. Further, we discovered that we could control the deposition pressure to achieve either granular or continuous media morphologies corresponding to exchange-coupled or decoupled grains, respectively. Finally, we used the combinatorial synthesis to tailor multilayers' properties to engineer a eight-level three-layer 3D media.

• OSTI ID: 21538091
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 109, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3544306; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANISOTROPY
ARGON IONS
COBALT
COERCIVE FORCE
COOPERATION
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRONS
EXCHANGE INTERACTIONS
FOSSIL FUELS
LAYERS
LOSSES
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES
MEMBER STATES
MICROSTRUCTURE
PALLADIUM
RESIDUES
SPUTTERING
THICKNESS
CHARGED PARTICLES
DIMENSIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FERMIONS
FUELS
INTERACTIONS
IONS
LEPTONS
METALS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLATINUM METALS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS