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In order to enhance the energy density (BH)max as a key property for permanent magnet applications, exchanged-coupled trilayers of SmCo5/Fe/SmCo5 with fixed SmCo5 layer thicknesses (25 nm) and varying soft magnetic Fe film thickness have been epitaxially grown by pulsed laser deposition on Cr buffered MgO(110) substrates. The effect of the increasing soft layer thickness on the reversal mechanism and improved remanence due to the higher Fe-volume fraction was investigated by vibrating sample magnetometry in external fields up to 9 T. As the energy density strongly depends on the volume of the samples, emphasis is put on multilayer architecture investigation and reliable thickness determination. Concerning the latter all applied analysis methods as energy dispersive x-ray analysis, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy confirm energy densities with maximum values of 312 kJ/m3 (39 MGOe) for a soft layer thickness of 12.6 nm.

Epitaxial SmCo5 thin films with strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy have been developed by pulsed laser deposition on heated Ru buffered Al2O3(0001) substrates. Pole figure measurements on thicker films reveal the existence of two epitaxial variants, 30° in-plane rotated to each other, which reduces to a single epitaxial relation for smaller film thickness. The presence of a single SmCo5 phase with perpendicular direction of the c-axis is established by multiple peak analysis of x-ray data in pole figure geometry and is confirmed by a numerical fit of hysteresis measurements, which results in an anisotropy constant of Ku=7.6 MJ/m3.

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