Direct observation of an anisotropic in-plane residual stress induced by B addition as an origin of high magnetic anisotropy field of Ru/FeCoB film

Although boron-free FeCo films prepared on a Ru underlayer exhibits isotropic in-plane magnetic property, boron added FeCoB films prepared on Ru underlayer revealed large in-plane magnetic anisotropy with a high anisotropy field of 500 Oe. The effect of boron addition on the in-plane anisotropic residual stress in FeCoB film was investigated using sin(2) psi method of x-ray diffraction analysis. Large isotropic compressive stress was observed in Ru/FeCo film. In contrast, anisotropic in-plane residual stress was observed in Ru/FeCoB film. The compressive stress along the easy axis of Ru/FeCoB film is released more than that along the hard axis. Such anisotropic residual stress is regarded as an origin of the in-plane magnetic anisotropy through inverse magnetostriction effect. Owing to the configuration of the facing targets sputtering system, boron atoms are sputtered and deposited anisotropically, and so they penetrate FeCo crystals and release the compressive stress along the incidence direction. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3350899]