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Investigation of Magnetic Anisotropy and Damping in Obliquely Sputtered Cobalt Thin Films

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Abstract

A systematic investigation of the magnetic anisotropy (MA) in cobalt thin films as a function of thickness (10–60 nm) is performed employing angular-dependent longitudinal magneto-optic Kerr effect (L-MOKE) and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectroscopy techniques. All the Co films were polycrystalline with very low interface roughness (< 0.5 nm) as gauzed by X-ray diffraction and X-ray reflectivity measurements. The magnetic coercivity in all the samples was found to be very sensitive to the crystallite size and surface roughness. Both MOKE and FMR measurements conclusively suggest the presence of dominant in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in all the samples. A quantitative analysis of the anisotropy is also performed, considering the possibility of the presence of the cubic anisotropy. The study reveals the unique role of deposition geometry on the MA, which is fundamentally interesting and beneficial for designing next-generation information storage devices, spin-transfer torque magnetic random-access memories, and spin torque nano-oscillators.

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Acknowledgements

One of the contributing authors (E.G.) acknowledges the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), Government of India, for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thin Film Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, New Delhi, 110016, India

    Ekta Goyat, Soumyarup Hait, Vineet Barwal & Sujeet Chaudhary

  2. Department of Chemistry, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, 124001, India

    Gobind Goyat

  3. Department of Physics, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, 125055, India

    Rahul Siwach

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  1. Ekta Goyat
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  2. Soumyarup Hait
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  3. Vineet Barwal
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  4. Gobind Goyat
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  6. Sujeet Chaudhary
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Correspondence to Sujeet Chaudhary.

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Goyat, E., Hait, S., Barwal, V. et al. Investigation of Magnetic Anisotropy and Damping in Obliquely Sputtered Cobalt Thin Films. J Supercond Nov Magn 35, 2029–2036 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-022-06243-3

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