DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANISOTROPY IN AMORPHOUS SMCO FILMS

Amorphous SmCo films were sputter synthesized at room temperature in t he presence of strong in-plane magnetic fields. Both in-the-film-plane and perpendicular anisotropy could be formed in the films depending u pon the film preparation conditions. Post deposition annealing in the presence of in-plane magnetic fields directed perpendicular to the ori ginal field direction were performed to distinguish the behaviors of t he various types of anisotropies. The physical origin of in-the-film-p lane anisotropy can be explained as directional pair ordering. Perpend icular anisotropy was only formed in films synthesized through thermal ized sputtering and was caused by growth induced structure. If formed, the microcrystallites also have large contributions to the anisotropy with their easy axes in the film plane, but without any preferred dir ection in the film plane. Both the formation of growth induced structu re, which caused the perpendicular anisotropy, and the formation of mi crocrystallites, prevented the formation of the pair ordering, which d ecreased the in-the-film-plane anisotropy.