L10 ordering of FePt thin films using sub-10 ms laser pulses

The structural and magnetic properties of 10 nm FePt thin films annealed using a 1064 nm wavelength laser with 10, 7.5, 5.0, and 2.5 ms pulses have been examined. The A1 to L1(0) phase transformation was confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). The maximum order parameter of 0.53 and coercivity of 5.36 kOe can be obtained with 10 ms pulse width laser annealing at a laser energy fluence of 10 J/cm(2). The order parameter of the furnace annealed samples was approximately 1.0 suggesting that 10 ms is insufficient to obtain a fully ordered phase. The laser annealed grain size, as measured by in-plane XRD analysis, is 24% smaller than that of furnace annealed sample for an equivalent order parameter demonstrating the merit of short time annealing. (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3068529]