Effect of Ag addition to L10 FePt and L10 FePd films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

L1(0) ordered FePt-Ag (5 nm) and FePd-Ag (5 nm) films were grown on MgO (001) substrate at temperatures of 250-400 degrees C by using molecular beam epitaxy method, and their crystal and surface structures, perpendicular magnetic anisotropies and Curie temperatures were investigated. In the case of FePt-Ag, Ag addition with the amount of 10-20 at.% was effective to promote L1(0) ordering and granular growth, resulting in the increase of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and coercivity of the FePt-Ag films. On the other hand, in the case of FePd-Ag, Ag addition changed the surface morphology from island to continuous film associated with the reductions of its coercivity and perpendicular anisotropy. The variations of lattice constants and Curie temperature with Ag addition were significantly different between FePt-Ag and FePd-Ag. For FePd-Ag, the c and a axes lattice spacings and Curie temperature gradually changed with increasing Ag content, while they unchanged for FePt-Ag. These results suggest the possibility of the formation of FePdAg alloy in FePd-Ag, while Ag segregation in FePt-Ag. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.