ISOTHERMAL REMANENT MAGNETIZATION AND ANISOTROPY IN IRON-TERBIUM THIN-FILMS

Thin films of composition TbxFe1-x, about 150 mum thick have been stud ied using the magneto-optical Kerr effect and have also had their acqu isition curves of isothermal remanent magnetization measured using a s pinner flux gate magnetometer. Both types of measurement show that, fo r x < 0.23, the easy magnetization direction lies in the plane of the film, whereas samples with a higher Tb content are more easily magneti zed at high fields perpendicular to the film. At lower fields the rema nence measurements show that samples of higher Tb content are almost i sotropic. The remanence measurements also indicate that those samples with an easy plane also exhibit a marked anisotropy within the plane s o that a preferred axis is present, presumably as a result of some asy mmetry in the deposition process.