Thickness-Dependent Permanent Magnet Properties of ZrCo Thin Films Grown on Si with Pt Underlayer

Zr-Co is one of the essential magnetic materials due to its interesting magnetic and structural properties. In this work, we studied the magnetic and structural properties of ZrCo thin films of different thicknesses grown on Si substrate with Pt underlayer. The structural properties and chemical composition of the ZrCo films were investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, and atomic force microscopy-magnetic force microscopy measurements. The saturation magnetization, M(H) characteristic, and Henkel plots of the Zr-Co films were obtained by vibrating-sample magnetometry. The results show that and were enhanced with decreasing layer thickness of Zr-Co. For 10-nm ZrCo with 20-nm Pt underlayer thin film, we observed coercive field of 2 kOe with energy product of 0.7 MGOe. Our results may be valuable for use of ZrCo thin films in nanomagnet applications.