Fabrication and magnetocrystalline anisotropy of NiCo(002) films

A series of 30-nm-thick epitaxial Ni sub(x)Co sub(1-x) (002) alloy films are fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering. MgO (002) and SrTiO sub(3) (002) single substrates are used for x > 0.5 and x < 0.5, respectively. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Ni sub(x)Co sub(1-x) (002) alloy films is studied in the entire composition region for 0 [< or =] x [< or =] 1.0. When x decreases, the cubic magnetic anisotropy constant K sub(1) changes sign from negative to positive at x = 0.96 and becomes negative again at x = 0.79. It becomes more negative as x decreases from 0.79 to 0. The uniaxial anisotropy K sub(u) is smaller than the K sub(1) by a factor of two orders.