Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy in Amorphous TbCo Sputtered Films

Effects of sputtering conditions on perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in amorphous TbCo films prepared by two target magnetron cosputtering have been studied. The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of amorphous TbCo films depended strongly on negative substrate bias voltage and Ar gas pressure. TbCo films deposited at zero substrate bias voltage and low Ar gas pressure (2 ~ 5 mtorr) showed a positive uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (K
u
) of 3 ~ 4 × 10
⁶
erg/cm
³
in the range of 13 ~ 31 at% Tb.