Perpendicularly oriented FePt nanoparticles sputtered on heated substrates

Textured FePt/C nanocomposite films have been deposited onto heated substrates at a temperature up to 650degreesC. At ambient substrate temperature, FePt and carbon form a multilayered structure with a disordered FCC structure which is magnetically soft. Post-annealing in the range of 550 750degreesC leads to the formation of ordered FePt particles. FePt nanoparticles with strong perpendicular texture were obtained by depositing directly onto heated substrates at a temperature above 450degreesC. TEM data show well-separated FePt particles of unique elongated shape with the major axis (similar to20 nm) oriented in a direction perpendicular to the film. The development of the texture is controlled by both the substrate temperature and bilayer film thickness. Kelly Henkel plots indicate small interactions between the particles in both the parallel and perpendicular directions. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.