Structural, magnetic and magneto-optical studies of Mn/Al bilayer thin films on GaAs substrates

Ferromagnetism and magnetic anisotropy in Mn–Al thin films can be of great interest due to their applications in spintronic components and as rare-earth free magnets. Temperature-dependent uniaxial anisotropy has been observed in ferromagnetic MnAl thin films, which is attributed to the modification of the tetragonal lattice distortion with the change in annealing temperature, confirmed by VSM, MOKE and XRD results; the annealing time did not affect the magnetic anisotropy. A simple evaporation technique was used to deposit the Mn/Al bilayer thin films (thickness ∼ 64 nm) on GaAs substrates. A comprehensive study of the effect of annealing temperature as well as annealing time on structural, microstructural, magnetic and magneto-optical properties are reported in this paper. The ferromagnetic phase was enriched in annealed samples, which was confirmed by XRD, MOKE and magnetic hysteresis loops. XRD results revealed that the ferromagnetic τ-phase was enhanced in annealed films with the increase in annealing temperature ≥ 400 °C. Surface roughness was estimated from the AFM micrographs and was found to be increased, whereas the mean grain size was decreased on annealing the as-deposited Mn/Al bilayer thin film. The gradual increase in magnetic coercivity was found on increasing the annealing temperature. It is interesting to note that the magnetic easy axis can be tuned by changing the annealing temperature of MnAl thin films, and the easy axis changes from perpendicular to parallel direction of the film plane when the annealing temperature varies from 400 °C to 500 °C. MOKE results were also found to be consistent with the magnetic results.