STRUCTURE AND MAGNETIC-PROPERTIES OF COCRTA FILMS DEPOSITED ON THIN NIFE FILMS

The magnetic properties and crystal texture of rf-sputtered CoCrTa thi n films deposited on different NiFe underlayers have been investigated . A CoCrTa thin film deposited on a 'strong' (111) textured NiFe under layer exhibits a strong c-axis texture oriented perpendicular to the p lane of the film, The structure and properties of a sputter-deposited CoCrTa thin film were found to be very sensitive to the crystal textur e of the NiFe underlayer. Higher coercivity is obtained on films with random crystal orientation distributions, while lower coercivity is ob tained on the highly textured films. Such behavior may be attributed t o the induced local energy fluctuation associated with the crystal ori entation distribution, It is clear that the crystallographic structure of NiFe underlayers significantly affects the magnetic properties of CoCrTa/NiFe films.