Microstructure and epitaxy of c-axis oriented single crystal cobalt films grown on rigid underlayers

We have established the conditions to grow c-axis oriented Co films on mica substrates and characterized their crystallography and microstructure in detail. In particular, these films are single crystal, c-axis oriented, Cohcp and are grown epitaxially by e-beam evaporation on either Ti or Ru underlayers. The orientation relationship is basically (00.1)mica∥(00.1)underlayer∥(00.1)Co, and [11.0]mica∥[10.0]underlayer∥[10.0]Co. Films grown on Ru underlayers have an average grain size of 50–80 nm with negligible fcc content. For Ti underlayers, the 15–20 nm size grains contain a small fraction of fcc cobalt. The growth of such films makes it possible to measure fundamental magnetic properties of the individual microstructural components/grains of a thin film recording media.