Structural, magnetic and magneto-optical properties of Co1-xNixPt3 alloy films with perpendicular anisotropy

The effect of the Ni addition on the structural, magnetic and magneto-optic al (MO) properties is investigated with Co1-xNixPt3 alloy films. The result shows that the addition of Ni may greatly reduce the Curie temperature T-c , thus enhancing MO recording. A large intrinsic perpendicular magnetic ani sotropy (PMA) K-u (0.644 MJ/m(3)) was obtained in CoPt3 alloy films. With t he increase of the Ni content x, K-u decreases, which indicates that excess ive Ni will not enhance perpendicular recording. The high angle X-ray diffr action result shows that the (111) texture is not the only reason for a per pendicular magnetic anisotropy in present system. Although the addition of Ni reduces Kerr rotation angle in the blue-wave range, the films investigat ed can be considered as suitable for perpendicular magnetic recording appli cations (T-c = 248 degrees C, H-c = 176 KA/m, theta(k) = 0.43 degrees at 4. 2 eV photon energy), if a proper Ni content (x = 0.25) is selected. (C) 200 0 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.