Ferromagnetic Composite Self-Arrangement in Iron-Implanted Epitaxial Palladium Thin Films

Abstract

We report on the formation of the dilute $Pd_{1-x}Fe_x$ compositions with tunable magnetic properties under an ion-beam implantation of epitaxial Pd thin films. Binary $Pd_{1-x}Fe_x$ alloys with a mean iron content $x$ of $0.025$, $0.035$ or $0.075$ were obtained by the implantation of $40 keV$ $Fe^+$ ions into the palladium films on MgO (001) substrate to the doses of $0.5\cdot10^{16}, 1.0\cdot10^{16}$ and $3.0\cdot10^{16}$ $ions/cm^2$, respectively. Structural and magnetic studies have shown that iron atoms occupy regular fcc-lattice Pd-sites without the formation of any secondary crystallographic phase. All the iron implanted Pd films reveal ferromagnetism at low temperatures (below $200 K$) with both the Curie temperature and saturation magnetization determined by the implanted iron dose. In contrast to the magnetic properties of the molecular beam epitaxy grown $Pd_{1-x}Fe_x$ alloy films with the similar iron contents, the Fe-implanted Pd films possess weaker in-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy, and, accordingly, a lower coercivity. The observed multiple ferromagnetic resonances in the implanted $Pd_{1-x}Fe_x$ films indicate a formation of a magnetically inhomogeneous state due to spinodal decomposition into regions, presumably layers, with identical crystal symmetry but different iron contents. The multiphase magnetic structure is robust with respect to the vacuum annealing at $770 K$, though develops towards well-defined local $Pd-Fe$ compositions.