Texture of Cr interlayer in double CoCrTa thin films and effects of interlayer on the magnetic properties

Multilayer magnetic recording thin-film media have attracted much attention because of their high signal-to-noise ratios. The authors investigated the crystallographic texture of the interlayer and the effects of the interlayer on the magnetic properties. It was found that: (1) when deposited at room temperature, the Cr interlayer has {110} texture, the same as the texture of the Cr underlayer; (2) when deposited at elevated temperatures, the Cr interlayer may have a different texture than that of the underlayer; (3) the Cr interlayer (only 25 Å thick) can either increase H_c or reduce S*, depending on the thickness of the CoCrTa layer; and (4) the substrate temperature affects H_c and S * dramatically