Effect of substrate temperature on the magnetic properties of epitaxial sputter-grown Co/Pt

Epitaxial Co/Pt films have been deposited by dc-magnetron sputtering onto heated C-plane sapphire substrates. X-ray diffraction, the residual resistivity, and transmission electron microscopy indicate that the Co/Pt films are highly ordered on the atomic scale. The coercive field and the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy increase as the substrate temperature is increased from 100-250 degrees C during deposition of the Co/Pt. Measurement of the domain wall creep velocity as a function of applied magnetic field yields the domain wall pinning energy, which scales with the coercive field. Evidence for an enhanced creep velocity in highly ordered epitaxial Co/Pt is found. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.