Exchange Anisotropy in Amorphous/Microcrystalline Co-Gd Films

Magnetization, TEM, and x-ray diffraction studies have been carried out on GdCox films sputtered onto Si or sapphire substrates at ~90 C, ambient temperature. The composition range studied was x=2−8.5. Over the composition range defined approximately by 5>×>3, the films, which are 1–3 microns thick, exhibit a unidirectionally displaced B-H loop, characteristic of an exchange-biased phase. TEM studies indicated that the samples with the shifted loops indeed consist of a mixture of amorphous and microcrystalline phases. The characteristic size of the microstructure is 10–20 A. Electron diffraction shows a very broad ring characteristic of amorphous phase together with six or seven sharper rings characteristic of crystalline material which index best to the hexagonal GdCo5 structure or to a high temperature hexagonal Gd2Co17 phase. The diffraction pattern remains virtually unchanged over the composition range x=2–8. This leads us to conclude that the microcrystalline material consists of one, or perhaps more than one, metastable phase over the indicated composition range. X-ray diffraction shows only one broad maximum.