Effect of polycrystalline sublayer films on the magnetic and structural properties of CoCr films

Abstract
The magnetic and structural properties of Co‐18 at. % Cr films were evaluated for high density longitudinal recording applications. The films exhibited in‐plane magnetization, high coercivity (≲1000 Oe), and hysteresis loop squareness of 0.7–0.89 when the CoCr films were sputtered on sublayer films of Cr or Cr‐20 at. % Co. The coercivity was correlated with the thicknesses of the CoCr film and the sublayer, the deposition conditions, and the percentage of CoCr grains with c‐axis preferred orientation in the film plane.