Soft magnetic properties of as-deposited FeCoAlN films studied using magneto-optic magnetometry

The longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) is used to investigate the magnetic properties of nanogranular ferromagnetic FeCoAlN films. In-plane hysteresis loops of as-deposited samples in the longitudinal and transversal direction to applied field are compared with the volume loops obtained by the M–H inductive tracer. All loops show excellent soft magnetic properties with the coercive field of about 4 Oe and in-plane magnetic uniaxial anisotropy. The coherent rotation of magnetization followed by nucleation of domains magnetized along the easy axis of the film is observed. It is shown that external magnetic field applied during the preparation for the plasma confinement induces magnetic anisotropy in the films.