Effect of the laser fluence on the microstructure and the relating magnetic properties of BaFe.sub.12O.sub.19 films grown on YSZ by PLD for optimized perpendicular recording

High-quality BaFe.sub.12O.sub.19 (BaM) films with high uniaxial anisotropy fields of H.sub.A = 17.5 and 18.5 kOe were obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at two fluences of 1.5 and 5.1 J/cm.sup.2 on YSZ(111) substrate, using a platinum interlayer for reducing lattice mismatch. We demonstrated that the microstructure, morphology, and stoichiometry of the hexaferrite BaFe.sub.12O.sub.19 films can be affected by raising the corresponding energy per pulse from 25 to 75 mJ. However, we also concluded that the increase of fluence leads to the formation of a non-stoichiometric BaM film through two nucleation steps and an output growth of small grains in addition to the increase of the defect density. In turn, this has contributed to the enhancement of the coercive field from H.sub.c = 1769 Oe to H.sub.c = 2166 Oe as it is required for the improvement of perpendicular recording resolution. We found that both the lateral coherent block size and misorientation of mosaic blocks are remarkably affected by the growth kinetics, which itself depends on the energy per pulse. For a deep understanding of the effect of laser fluence on the microstructure, chemical composition, and on the magnetic properties of thin BaM films, the results of complementary methods are combined. These methods comprise high-resolution X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning TEM combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Graphical abstract