Magnetic anisotropy in thermally evaporated Gd--Co

The x-ray diffraction spectrum of thermally evaporated a-GdCo is reported and found to be similar to that of bias sputter deposited a-GdCo which possesses an easy axis of magnetization normal to the film plane. The thermally evaporated a-GdCo films are shown to possess magnetic anisotropy with K/sub u/ approximately equal to 5 x 105 erg/cm3 (hard axis normal to the film plane). Off axis atomic incidence experiments show that the hard axis K/sub u/ can be tilted toward the direction of incidence. No significant easy axis of magnetic anisotropy in the columnar growth direction was found. The results are consistent with the origin of the magnetic anisotropy being magneto-structural (cf., magneto-crystalline) in thermally evaporated a-GdCo