Magnetization reversal mechanism of Co-O films with oblique anisotropy

The angular dependence of the coercivity H-c for vacuum evaporated Co-O fil ms with oblique anisotropy is studied both in an in-plane and in a normal p lane in order to clarify the magnetization reversal mechanism. The angular dependence of H-c in the in-plane is remarkably different from that in the normal plane. The Co-O films have columnar structure, and the columnar grai ns look almost the same in both planes. The anisotropy field H-k in the nor mal plane is much higher than in the in-plane. Simulated curves of the angu lar dependence of H-c using the curling incoherent magnetization reversal m odel on the basis of measured values for H-c of the easy axis direction and H-k are similar to the experimental results in both planes. These results indicate that the magnetization reversal mechanism of the Co-O films is the incoherent rotation and that the interaction among the grains is different in both planes. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)519 08-7].