Magnetic characterisation and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism study of amorphous YCo2 films

Abstract In this work, we analyse the role of Y in the magnetic behaviour of amorphous YCo2 films. The effect of the deposition conditions, such as argon pressure used during film production, was verified. The increases observed in the Co magnetic moment and in Curie temperature TC were attributed to a reduction of the film density with the increase of the argon pressure. Magnetic (SQUID) and magneto-optical (TMOKE) measurements were performed in order to show that Y does not contribute to the magnetic moment of the amorphous YCo2 film. This was also verified using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements at the Y L2,3-edges.