Magnetic patterning of chemicall-ordered CrPt₃ films

We report magnetic patterning of ferrimagnetic CrPt3 films by locally suppressing the magnetic order using ion-beam irradiation. Chemically-ordered CrPt3 films grown on MgO(110) single-crystal and amorphous SiNx substrates are ferrimagnetic and exhibit strain-induced uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. X-ray diffraction confirms the formation of the L12 phase and magneto-optical Kerr effect spectroscopy reveals the theoretically expected dependence of Kerr rotation and ellipticity on photon energy. Irradiation of the films with 700 keV N+ ions at doses ≲6 × 1016 ions/cm2 transforms the chemically-ordered CrPt3 ferrimagnetic alloy into the chemically-disordered nonmagnetic fcc phase. As a result, ordered CrPt3 layers can be patterned into magnetic and nonmagnetic regions and are candidate material for ion-beam-patterned magnetic recording media. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.