Structure and magnetic properties of nanostructured GdTb thin films

✍ Scribed by Svalov, A. V. ;Vas'kovskiy, V. O. ;Barandiarán, J. M. ;Balymov, K. G. ;Orue, I. ;Kurlyandskaya, G. V.

• Book ID: 105366008
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 509 KB
• Volume: 208
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-8965
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.201000630

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Various series of Gd~100−x~Tb~x~ films and multilayers with a different thickness of rare earth (RE) layers were prepared by rf‐sputtering. The increase of Gd content leads to an increase of the magnetic ordering temperature (T~ord~). At the same time substitution of the low anisotropic gadolinium by high anisotropic terbium causes an increase of the coercivity of the samples. The decrease of the RE layer thickness (L~RE~) results in the change of the RE films structure: the crystalline grain size goes down and for L~RE~ < 3 nm an amorphous phase appears. For L~RE~ < 5 nm all compositions show a significant decrease of the ordering temperature. In contrast with bulk Gd~100−x~Tb~x~ alloys, in case of thin films, the value of T~ord~ can be tailored, not only by the change of the composition, but also by the variation of the thickness of Gd~100−x~Tb~x~ films.