Magnetic and magneto-optic properties of Tb-FeCo-Al films

Abstract

The influence of an addition of Al on the corrosion resistance of amorphous 100-nm-thick Tb-Fe coevaporated films has been studied. From measurements of the change of the optical transmittance, it is seen that the growth of pin holes is reduced considerably. However, the addition of Al also results in a decrease of the magnetic and magneto-optic properties of the Tb-Fe films such as the Curie temperature, the Kerr rotation, the perpendicular anisotropy, and the coercivity. These problems, however, are recovered easily by replacing part of the Fe by Co. This replacement also contributes to the improvement of the corrosion resistance. It has been shown that Tb-Fe-Co-Al films have a much better corrosion resistance than Tb-Fe or Tb-Fe-Co films, while having the same good magnetic and magneto-optic properties.