Low-temperature ordering of (001) granular FePt films by inserting ultrathin SiO2 layers

L 1 0 granular FePt–SiO2 films with a (001) preferred orientation and well-separated grains of 5.14nm were obtained by depositing atomic-scale Fe∕Pt∕SiO2 multilayers (MLs) on glass substrates and subsequently annealing MLs at a temperature of 350°C. Large out-of-plane coercivity of 7700Oe and a high ordering factor of 0.83 were achieved. Alternate atomic-scale depositions promoted the formation of (001) textures. Furthermore, because of the low surface energy of SiO2 layers, SiO2 tended to diffuse into grain boundaries of FePt during annealing, which may accelerate diffusion of Fe and Pt atoms, resulting in the low-temperature ordering.