Direct observation of in-plane texture in cobalt recording media by means of a laboratory-scale x-ray diffractometer

A new diffractometer was developed for measuring in-plane diffraction by em ploying an advanced parabolic multilayer and a rotating anode x-ray generat or. By means of the diffractometer, the in-plane Co(002) diffraction peak a nd its lateral anisotropy was successfully observed in cobalt thin films of magnetic recording media, which had so far been difficult to observe with a conventional theta/2 theta diffractometer, In-plane diffraction is useful for analyzing such a lateral structure of thin films. It was possible to e stimate lattice constants, crystallite size and the texture of the crystall ites of cobalt thin films from the observed in-plane diffraction data, It m as found that the magnetic properties of these disks had a close relationsh ip with the crystallographic structure of cobalt films obtained by the pres ent in-plane diffraction. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.