title: Rotatable magnetic anisotropy in Si/SiO2/(Co2Fe)(x)Ge(1-x) Heusler alloy films.
abstract: Polycrystalline (Co2Fe)(x)Ge(1-x) Heusler alloy films are fabricated by sputtering on amorphous substrates and shown to possess three types of magnetic anisotropy. The nearly stoichiometric composition of x = 50 m.f.% shows a rectangular hysteresis loop and isotropic coercive and ferromagnetic resonance fields when the film is field-magnetized along any in-plane direction, thus predominantly possessing rotatable in-plane magnetic anisotropy. Higher-x compositions show evidence of two- and fourfold in-plane anisotropy superposed on the rotatable one. A qualitative model of the observed anisotropic magnetic properties is proposed. The model explains the rotatable anisotropy by taking into account dry friction for the in-plane rotation of the magnetization direction in a fine-grained polycrystalline film with the magnetic grain size smaller than the correlation length of the inter-grain exchange interaction. The observed two- and fourfold magnetic anisotropy contributions are attributed to partial texturing of the fine-grained films, even though the films are grown on amorphous SiO2 substrates. These results should be valuable for understanding and controlling the magnetic behaviour of highly spin-polarized Heusler alloy films used in various magnetic nanodevices.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Nauki 46, 03680 Kyiv, Ukraine.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ryabchenko
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Kalita
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Kulik
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Lozenko
authors.forename: V V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Nevdacha
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Pogorily
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Kravets
authors.forename: D Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Podyalovskiy
authors.forename: A Ya
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Vovk
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Borges
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Godinho
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Korenivski
mesh_terms: D000497:Alloys / Q000737:chemistry*; D016880:Anisotropy; D003198:Computer Simulation; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular
chemical_list: D000497:Alloys; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008670:Metals