Multi-jump magnetic switching in ion-beam sputtered amorphous Co{sub 20}Fe{sub 60}B{sub 20} thin films
- Thin Film Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016 (India)
Unconventional multi-jump magnetization reversal and significant in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) in the ion-beam sputtered amorphous Co{sub 20}Fe{sub 60}B{sub 20}(5–75 nm) thin films grown on Si/amorphous SiO{sub 2} are reported. While such multi-jump behavior is observed in CoFeB(10 nm) film when the magnetic field is applied at 10°–20° away from the easy-axis, the same is observed in CoFeB(12.5 nm) film when the magnetic field is 45°–55° away from easy-axis. Unlike the previous reports of multi-jump switching in epitaxial films, their observance in the present case of amorphous CoFeB is remarkable. This multi-jump switching is found to disappear when the films are crystallized by annealing at 420 °C. The deposition geometry and the energy of the sputtered species appear to intrinsically induce a kind of bond orientation anisotropy in the films, which leads to the UMA in the as-grown amorphous CoFeB films. Exploitation of such multi-jump switching in amorphous CoFeB thin films could be of technological significance because of their applications in spintronic devices.
- OSTI ID:
- 22218250
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 114, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Preparation and characterization of highly L2{sub 1}-ordered full-Heusler alloy Co{sub 2}FeAl{sub 0.5}Si{sub 0.5} thin films for spintronics device applications
Evolution of magnetic anisotropy and spin-reorientation transition in Fe films grown on GaAs(113)A substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy