Induced anisotropy in amorphous Sm-Co sputtered films

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Abstract
The variation of the in‐the‐film‐plane anisotropy constant, Ku, with composition and the magnitude of the field, Hs, applied in plane during the sputter deposition of amorphous SmxCo1−x, 0.08≤x≤0.40, thin films has been studied. We demonstrate here that with a large Hs, 5.0 kOe, a well defined and large in‐the‐film‐plane anisotropy can be obtained. An exceptionally high value of Ku=3.3×106 erg/cm3 has been obtained. For the loop measured along the in‐plane hard direction, the opening of the loop was undetectable, and the loop along the easy axis was a perfect rectangle. For certain conditions, the anisotropy field measured perpendicular to the film plane when corrected for demagnetization (Nd=4π) was the same as that for the in‐plane measurements. It is concluded that surface induced short range ordering was the origin of the anisotropy observed in amorphous films deposited in a magnetic field. The formation mechanism is different from that of the short range ordering induced by field annealing.