Soft anisotropic Fe/sub 65/Co/sub 35//Co thin films prepared by facing targets sputtering

High saturation magnetization FeCo(Fe/sub 65/Co/sub 35/)/Co films with 4/spl pi/M/sub s/ about 24 kG were prepared by facing targets sputtering (FTS). A well-defined in-plane uniaxial anisotropy and excellent soft magnetic properties were obtained with a hard axis coercivity of H/sub ch/=3 Oe by inserting a thin Co underlayer. The X-ray diffractometry (XRD) results indicate that the Co underlayer changed the main diffraction line from [200] in the FeCo single layer to [110] in the FeCo/Co films. The Co underlayer significantly reduced the average grain size from /spl sim/74 nm for FeCo single layer to /spl sim/8.2 nm for FeCo/Co films. A smoother surface and a narrower grain size distribution were observed in FeCo/Co films.