Microstructure, magnetic and magneto-optical properties of Fe-doped SmCo₅ thin films

The SmCo/Cu, SmCo/Cu/Cr and Fe-doped SmCo films on glass and Si (100) substrates are synthesized by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The microstructure, magnetism and magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) of Fe-doped SmCo films are studied systematically. The results show that the corcivity and saturation magnetization of films deposited on Si substrates are better than that of on glass subatrates. It is also found that the surface morphology and magnetic properties of Fe:SmCo films are influenced by the annealing temperature. Meanwhile, the X-ray diffraction peaks of SmCo₅ phase are enhanced, especially for SmCo₅ (001), (002) and (003) peaks after annealing due to the enhancement of Cu (111) peak in the films with Cu buffer layer. Moreover, the MOKE of the samples on both glass and Si substrates are enhanced after Fe doping and the MOKE of samples is controlled by the Fe content, which provides a new way for optimizing the property of SmCo film as the magneto optical storages. (paper)