Abstract
Magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) were used to investigate the magnetic properties of CoFeTaZr and CoTaZr soft magnetic underlayers (SULs). When comparing the CoTaZr with the CoFeTaZr amorphous thin films, the CoFeTaZr films yielded superior magnetic properties. Pre-sputtering substrate Ar-ion milling and sputtering processing pressure were varied to control the magnetic properties of the amorphous films. Furthermore, it was discovered that the magnetic properties of the amorphous thin film strongly depended on the thickness of the SULs, seed layers and capping layers. The experimental results indicated that above a certain thickness, the media noise could be substantially reduced and the magnetic properties of the CoFeTaZr SULs would be optimized. It was also shown that CoFeTaZr SULs with a Ta capping layer and Ru seedlayer had lower coercivity.
