Effect of aging and annealing on perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of ultra-thin CoPt films

The effect of aging and annealing on the magnetic properties of ultra-thin CoPt films with a Ru underlayer was investigated. For the 3 nm thick CoPt film aged in the air, the decrease of the saturation magnetic moment ms, the drastic increase of the perpendicular coercivity Hc⊥ and the perpendicular anisotropy were observed. This is because the surface layer of the CoPt film was oxidized and the bottom layer with high perpendicular anisotropy due to lattice distortion remained. For the annealed 3 nm thick CoPt film with a Pt protective layer, rising the annealing temperature Ta led to the decrease of ms, the decrease after increase of Hc⊥, and the decrease of the perpendicular squareness ratio S⊥ at Ta of 400 ∘C. The origins of effect of annealing were considered to be the grain boundary diffusion and the bulk diffusion of Ru and Pt into the CoPt film, and relaxation of the lattice distortion.