Using structural phase transitions to enhance the coercivity of ferromagnetic films

Storing information in magnetic recording technologies requires careful optimization of the recording media’s magnetic properties. For example, heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) relies on a prerecording heating step that momentarily lowers the coercivity of the ferromagnetic recording media, and thereby decreases the energy expenditure for each writing operation. However, this process currently requires local temperature increases of several hundred Kelvins, which in turn can cause heat spreading, damage the write head, and limit recording rates. Here, we describe a general mechanism for dramatically tuning the coercivity of ferromagnetic films over small temperature ranges, by coupling them to an adjacent layer that undergoes a structural phase transition with large volume changes. The method is demonstrated in Ni/FeRh bilayers where the Ni layer was deposited at 300 K and 523 K, above and below the FeRh metamagnetic transition at 370 K. When the Ni layer is grown at high temperatures, the 1% FeRh lattice expansion relative to room temperature alters the Ni’s crystallographic texture during growth and leads to a 500% increase in coercivity upon cooling through the FeRh’s metamagnetic transition. Our analysis suggests this effect is related to domain wall pinning across grain boundaries with different orientations and strain states. This work highlights the promise of thermally tuning the coercivity of ferromagnetic materials through structural coupling to underlying films that could enable simplified heatsink designs and expand the selection of materials compatible with HAMR.