Measurement of stacking fault densities in CoCrPt thin film media using grazing incidence x-ray scattering

In this work, synchrotron x-ray measurements are reported on a set of CoCrP t media grown on NiP/Al substrates in varying base pressures. A grazing inc idence geometry was employed to eliminate the large background scatter from the underlayers and amorphous substrate. The percentage of stacking faults was found to increase with increasing base pressure, varying from 9% to 30 % for samples grown at 10(-8) and 10(-4) Torr, respectively. We have also f ound that the in-plane c-axis orientation is destroyed when the sample is g rown at the highest base pressure of 10(-4) Torr. These structural differen ces are found to correlate well with the magnetic properties of the media. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)44608-6].