In-situ grazing incidence scattering investigations during magnetron sputtering deposition of FePt/Ag nanocomposite layers

We report on an in-situ GISAXS study of the evolution of nanocomposite magnetic L10-FePt/Ag layers as a function of the Ag amount. Simultaneously, the formation of the hard ferromagnetic L10 phase has been detected by x-ray diffraction at grazing incidence. The methodology applied is a sequential magnetron sputtering deposition of FePt and Ag at 400°C on an a-SiO2 substrate: the deposition chamber is equipped with two Be windows to allow x-ray penetration and mounted on the six-circle goniometer of ROBL – BM 20 at the ESRF.

[1] V. Cantelli, J. von Borany, N.M. Jeutter, J. Grenzer, Adv. Eng. Mat. 11, 478 (2009).