Influence of magnetic annealing on high-frequency magnetic properties of FeCoNd films

► FeCoNd thin film with thickness of 166 nm shows the perpendicular anisotropy. ► Perpendicular anisotropy decreases as annealing temperature increases from RT to 573 K. ► In-plane uniaxial anisotropy is achieved as annealing temperature above 400 °C. ► The resonance absorption phenomena around gigahertz were observed for FeCoNd films. ► The as deposited FeCoNd films have much potential for high-frequency application. FeCoNd thin film with thickness of 166 nm has been fabricated on silicon (1 1 1) substrates by magnetron co-sputtering and annealed for one hour under magnetic field at different temperatures ( T a) from 200 °C to 700 °C. The As-deposited and annealed FeCoNd film samples at T a ≤ 500 °C were amorphous while the ones obtained at T a ≥ 600 °C were crystallized. We found that the perpendicular anisotropy field gradually decreases as the annealing temperature increases from room temperature to 300 °C. A well induced in-plane uniaxial anisotropy is achieved at the annealing temperature between 400 and 600 °C. The variation of the dynamic magnetic properties of annealed FeCoNd films can be well explained by the Landau–Lifshitz equation with the variation of the anisotropy field re-distribution and the damping constant upon magnetic annealing. The magnetic annealing might be a powerful post treatment method for high frequency application of magnetic thin films.