Hard magnetic NdFeB and SmCo films: influence of the Cr buffer on the magnetic texture

Summary form only given. Bulk NdFeB and SmCo magnets have outstanding magnetic properties as high H/sub C/ and M/sub S/ and a high degree of texture. When prepared as thin films, the systems are complementary, as NdFeB can be grown with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy on heated substrates whereas SmCo can be grown with the easy magnetization axis lying in the film plane. We prepared samples by pulsed laser deposition in UHV from elementary targets on heated substrates and varied the deposition conditions for the Cr buffer. When depositing the NdFeB layer on the Cr buffer without braking the vacuum, the films have a pronounced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, but the perpendicular coercivity just exceeds 0.4 T. In the SmCo system we focus on the optimization of the magnetic in plane texture for films prepared on untextured substrates.