@article{
author = "Novaković, Mirjana M. and Popović, Maja and Rajić, Vladimir",
year = "2023",
abstract = "The present paper investigates the effects of thermal annealing on the structural and magnetic properties of Co thin films. The films were prepared by using electron-beam evaporation method onto Si (100) wafers and annealed in vacuum at 200 °C, 300 °C and 400 °C. A combination of X-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry were used to characterize structural properties and the composition of the films, while magnetic behavior was studied by magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements. It was found that as deposited Co layer show predominantly uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, while after annealing at 200 °C and 300 °C a strong influence of fourfold contribution is observed, which is assigned to the thermally induced HCP→FCC phase transition. With further increase in annealing temperature of 400 °C the isotropic contribution becomes the main component of magnetization. Besides, a strong variation in coercive field with annealing temperature was observed, where the coercivity seems to depend closely on the crystallite size. The highest value of HC equals ∼70 Oe and was found for the temperature of 400 °C, where also mixing at the interface has started and formation of CoSi was observed.",
journal = "Journal of Alloys and Compounds",
title = "Study on the structural and magnetic properties of e-beam evaporated Co thin films annealed in vacuum",
volume = "937",
pages = "168411",
doi = "10.1016/j.jallcom.2022.168411"
}