Magnetization reversal in sputtered Co-Cr films

The magnetic characteristics of a set of r.f. sputtered Co-Cr films of various composition and thickness are examined in order to evaluate their performance for perpendicular recording. The mechanism of the magnetization reversal is discussed on the bases of: i) the shape of the rotational hysteresis loss as a function of the internal rotating field, ii) the value of the rotational hysteresis integral, iii) the dependence of the coercivity H
c
, and the remanence coercivity H
r
, on the angle between the easy direction and the field direction. In particular the measurements of rotational hysteresis were performed by monitoring the rate of change of the angular velocity of a top containing the specimen spinning in a magnetic field perpendicular to its axis. The deviation of the experimental behaviour from the ideal models are related to the amount of anomalies in the columnar structure of the film.