The microstructure and magnetic behavior of Co nanostructured film prepared by energetic cluster beam deposition

Cobalt nanostructured films were successfully prepared by depositing Co clusters onto a Si(100) substrate in our home-made cluster beam deposition apparatus. During preparation, the energy of the cluster beam was accelerated by applying an external electric field. The effect of the cluster beam energy on the microstructure, phase transformation and magnetic behavior was investigated for the cluster-assembled film in the case of both low energy cluster deposition and energetic cluster deposition. The scanning electron microscopy observation confirms that the films are assembled by the regular spherical nanoclusters. Compared with the low-energy Co cluster-assembled film, the magnetization of the energetic Co cluster-assembled film was improved significantly. The present work describes an effective way to prepare the magnetic nanostructured films.