on the requirements of the specifi c application and the compatibility of processing conditions with fi lm integration. There have been many more reports on the fabrication of Nd-Fe-B based fi lms [3][4][5] compared to Sm-Co based fi lms, [6][7][8][9][10] which may be attributed to a drive towards maximizing the remanence and thus the energy product of the hard magnetic fi lm. However, in certain applications where the hard magnetic fi lm is exposed to high demagnetizing fi elds and/or high operating temperatures, Sm-Co fi lms would be a better choice, due to the much higher values of magneto-crystalline anisotropy and thus high coercivity achievable in Sm-Co based materials. [11][12][13][14] We previously reported on the fabrication of high coercivity Sm-Co thin fi lms ( µ 0 H c ≤ 5 T at 300 K) by triode sputtering. [ 6 ] In this paper we demonstrate that the coercivity of Sm-Co based fi lms can be signifi cantly increased through a modifi cation of the target composition. With the aim to gain a better understanding of the origin of the high coercivity values, we carried out high-resolution microstructural characterization by using scanning transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography, and simulated the effect of the observed microstructural defects on magnetization reversal. While the high value of coercivity that was achieved could be relevant for particular applications, combined exploitation of recent advances in sample preparation, characterization, and modeling should contribute to the engineering of better bulk magnets.
ResultsThe GI-XRD patterns of samples #1, #2, and #3 are shown in Figure 1 (note that all samples are amorphous in the asdeposited state -data not shown). Comparison of experimental peak positions with powder diffraction data fi les indicates that the crystal structure of the annealed fi lms changes from SmCo 1:7 to 1:5 and then to 2:7 as the Sm content of the layer is increased. Hereafter, samples "#1", "#2", and "#3" will be identifi ed as fi lms of 1:7, 1:5, and 2:7, respectively. Corresponding c / a ratios of 0.82, 0.795, and 0.808 were calculated from XRD peak positions for 1:7, 1:5, and 2:7, respectively. These values are quite close to the actual values for 1:7, 1:5, and 2:7 phases, namely 0.816, 0.793, and 0.803, respectively. [ 15 ] The as-deposited fi lms show soft magnetic behavior ( Figure 2 a). Room temperature in-plane hysteresis loops of