Magnetic and structural characterization and ferromagnetic resonance study of thin film HITPERM soft magnetic materials for data storage applications

HITPERM/SiO2 single and multilayer thin films have been produced using a target composition of (Fe70Co30)88Zr7B4Cu1 . The as-deposited HITPERM film contains small bcc ~or B2! nanocrystals of volume fraction less than 10% surrounded by an amorphous matrix. The lattice parameter of the nanocrystal is about 5% larger than an equilibrium FeCo phase. The saturation induction determined from FMR measurements ~1.5360.08 T! is consistent with VSM and SQUID measurements ~1.45– 1.5 T! and also with as-spun amorphous ribbons ~1.55–1.62 T!. The Landé g-factors ~2.1560.05! are typical of transition metals, particularly, of Fe. The Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert damping parameters of the single and multilayered films are small ~a 5 0.005560.0004! with each layer acting almost independently. Neither thickness variation of each layer nor the number of stacking significantly affects the damping process in a range of film thicknesses of 50–150 nm, while the coercivities are strongly dependent on those parameters. This supports a notion that the damping parameter is an intrinsic property. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1555871#