Structure and Performance Optimization of Co Magnetic Thin Films Deposited by Vacuum Evaporation Coating

Co magnetic films are widely used in high-frequency magnetic recording and vertical magnetic recording due to their high saturation magnetization and magnetocrystalline anisotropy. In this work, ferromagnetic Co magnetic films were prepared on copper substrate by vacuum evaporation combined with heat treatment (H₂ atmosphere), to investigate the impact of film thickness and annealing temperature on microstructure and magnetic properties. The results show that with the increase in annealing temperature, the Co thin film physical phase does not change significantly, the crystallinity increases, and the grain size increases, which is consistent with the results obtained from the SEM morphology map of the sample surface, leading to an increase in coercivity. By annealing experiments (atmospheric atmosphere) on Co magnetic films with and without an Al protective layer, as shown by scanning electron microscopy microscopic characterization results, it was verified that the Al layer can protect the inner Co layer from oxidation. As the film thickness increases from 10 to 300 nm, the magnetic properties of Co films change significantly. The saturation magnetization gradually increases from 0.89 to 5.21 emu/g, and the coercivity increases from 124.3 to 363.8 Oe. The remanence ratio of the 10 nm magnetic film is 0.82, which is much higher than the film remanence ratio of 0.46 at 50 nm. This is because when the thickness of the film is between 10 and 50 nm, the magnetic moments partially deviate from the in-plane direction, and the out-of-plane component reduces the film remanence ratio. This study shows that optimizing annealing temperature and film thickness can effectively control the structure and magnetic properties of Co magnetic films, which is of great significance for the development of the magnetic recording field.