Investigation of the Morphological Structure of Thin Cobalt Films by AFM and TEM

W. Szmaja, J. Balcerski, W. Kozłowski Department of Solid State Physics, University of Łódź, Pomorska 149/153, 90-236Łódź, Poland J. Grobelny and M. Cichomski Department of Chemical Technology and Environmental Protection, University ofŁódź, Pomorska 163, 90-236Łódź, Poland

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Received: 9 07 2007;

Thin obalt films, 40 nm and 100 nm in thickness, were evaporated at an incidence angle of 45° in a vacuum of about 10-5 mbar, simultaneously on unheated glass substrates and NaCl crystals. The magnetic microstructure of these films was investigated in a previous paper. In the present paper, to obtain an insight into relation between the magnetic microstructure and the morphological structure, we studied the latter structure with atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. For the films 40 nm as well as 100 nm thick, the presence of contribution of the shape anisotropy (related to the geometric alignment of the grains of the film) to the magnetic anisotropy of the film was found. Nevertheless, for the films investigated, we could not detect crystallographic texture.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.113.171 PACS numbers: 68.55.Jk, 68.37.Ps, 68.37.Lp