Magnetization Reversal and Giant Coercivity in Sm-Co/Cu-Ti Particulate Films

Highly coercive granular SmCo/CuTi films were produced by thermal processing of sputtered SmCo5 (CuTi) multilayers and investigated experimentally and theoretically. Electron microscopy shows that the processed films consist of spherical grains that have diameters of 5–10 nm and are embedded in a matrix. Both the grains and the matrix phase exhibit the CaCu5 structure, but the matrix is probably Cu-rich. The films have high coercivities of up to 50.4 kOe at 300 K. Analytical calculations and micromagnetic simulations yield a transition from a nucleation-type weak-interaction regime to a discrete-pinning-type strong-interaction regime. The transition occurs at packing fractions similar to those encountered in the investigated films and is accompanied by a coercivity maximum