Abstract
Annealing effects on the microstructure and magnetic properties of CoZr thin films are investigated in this article. It was found that a change in magnetic phase occurs by annealing the as-deposited films at temperatures of above 550 °C for 2 h. A much lower annealing temperature and shorter annealing time are needed to obtain a hard magnetic phase in thin films than in rapidly quenched CoZr bulk samples. Hard magnetic phase Co11Zr2 and ferromagnetic phase Co23Zr6 formed after annealing. All the annealed films show perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.