The effect of growth surface morphology on the crystal structure and magnetic property of L10 order PtFe layers deposited by magnetron sputtering

The Fe/Pt/Fe/Pt layers (Pt/Fe multilayer) were deposited on general glass substrate at room temperature by magnetron sputtering technique. Varying the deposition and post-annealing treatment parameters, the PtFe alloy (PtFe) layer with different crystal structures and magnetic properties were obtained at the interface between Fe and Pt layer. The characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the as-deposited Pt/Fe multilayer only contained pure Fe and Pt with body-centered and face-centered cubic structures, respectively. As-deposited Pt layer displayed (200) preferred orientation, and the columnar grains structure could be observed by the scanning electron microscopy. The PtFe layers with L1(0) face-centered cubic structure could be formed at the interface between Pt and Fe layers by post-annealing the multilayers at 500 degrees C. In case of Pt/Fe multilayer deposited on smooth substrate, the larger columnar grains in Pt layer resulted in L10 PtFe layers without any preferred orientation. While in case of Pt/Fe multilayer deposited on the rough substrate, the thinner columnar grains in Pt layer could induce L10 PtFe layers with (200) preferred orientation. In this case, the vibrating sample magnetometer results indicated that, the magnetic coercivity in plane and out-of-plane model could reach 3.72 and 2.32 kOe, respectively. Based on above results, the L1(0) structure Pt/Fe multilayer with satisfied magnetic properties could be prepared at low temperature by our simple route. (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V.