Effects of Annealing Pressures on the Ordering and Microstructures of FePt:Ag Nanocomposite Films

FePt:Ag (100 nm) nanocomposite thin films were prepared on naturally-oxidized Si substrates by dc magnetron sputtering at room temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used to investigate the effects of annealing pressures on the ordering processes and microstructures of these films. The average sizes for the $L1_0$ ordered domains and the FePt grains are reduced to d = 9 nm and D = 13 nm from d = 19 nm and D = 34 nm, respectively, when the annealing pressure is enhanced to 0.6 GPa from room pressure at 873 K. Furthermore, the size distribution is improved into a narrow range. With increasing pressure, the coercivity of $L1_0$-FePt:Ag thin films decreases from 15.1 to 7.6 kOe. In the present study, the effects of high pressure on the $L1_0$ ordering processes and microstructures of FePt:Ag nanocomposite films were discussed.