Characterization of FePt nanoparticles in FePt/C multilayers

The areal density growth of recording media is expected to reach 100 Gbit/in.2 within a few years. Such high densities require magnetic grain sizes of 10 nm or less, which is close to the superparamagnetic limit of current media. Therefore, in order to retain thermal stability, it is essential to use a magnetic material with high anisotropy energy. Ordered metallic phases such as FePt and CoPt, which have very large magnetocrystalline anisotropy, are regarded as attractive candidates. We have deposited at different temperatures by ion beam sputtering C/(FePt/C)x20 multilayers, with nominal thickness tC=4 nm and tFePt=1 nm. The FePt consists of nanoparticles embedded in the C matrix. Using Rutherford backscattering at grazing angles of incidence, we determined the stoichiometry of the nanoparticles, the multilayer periodicity and the nanoparticle height. We compare the results with X-ray reflectivity, grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering, and transmission electron microscopy results