MAGNETIC ANALYSIS OF COLUMNAR GRAIN-STRUCTURE OF OBLIQUELY DEPOSITED COBALT FILMS

In order to analyse quantitatively the columnar grain structure in obliquely deposited cobalt films two anisotropy fields H(k)(1) and H(k)(2), which originate from the shape anisotropy of columnar grains, were extracted from the total magnetic anisotropy. The cobalt films were vapor deposited at an incidence angle of 60-degrees onto glass substrates kept at 213 K. The pressure during deposition was 4.0 x 10(-3) Pa. On the basis of the model that the film is composed of rectangular parallelepiped crystallites the columnar grain structure has been analysed using extracted H(k)(1) and H(k)(2), and its formation mechanism is discussed.