Structure and magnetic properties of L10-FePt thin films on TiN/RuAl underlayers

Highly ordered L1₀ FePt-oxide thin films with small grains were prepared by using a RuAl layer as a grain size defining seed layer along with a TiN barrier layer. Different HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) favorable underlayers were studied to encourage perpendicular texture and preferred microstructure. It was found that the epitaxial and small grain growth from the RuAl/TiN underlayer results in small and uniform grains in the FePt layer with perpendicular texture. By introducing the grain size defining underlayers, the FePt grain size can be reduced from 30 to 6 nm with the same volume fraction (9%) of SiO₂ in the film, excellent perpendicular texture, and very high order parameter at 520 °C.