A general approach to the epitaxial growth of rare-earth-transition-metal films

Eric E. Fullerton, C. H. Sowers, J. P. Pearson, and S. D. Badar
Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439

X. Z. Wu
Department of Physics, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, IL 60115 and Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439

D. Lederman
Department of Physics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506

The growth of epitaxial rare-earth-transition-metal thin films is reported by magnetron sputtering on single-crystal MgO substrates. The use of epitaxial W buffer layers demonstrates a general approach to control the phase and orientation of the films. Structure and magnetism results for SmFe12 (001) on W(100) and magnetically hard Sm2Co7 (110) and (001) on W(100) and (110)., respectively, are highlighted to illustrate the utility of the approach.

VOLUME 69, ISSUE 16

APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS

14 OCTOBER 1996