Cr/SmCo/Cr thin films with Sm concentration of 37.7 at.% were deposited on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering. Measurement of magnetic properties showed that the SmCo film possessed good magnetic anisotropy, a high coercivity of 3019 kA/m and low magnetic exchange coupling. Microstructure analysis showed that crystallized SmCo5 magnetic phase, non-magnetic SmCo2 phase and Sm2Co7 phase co-existed in the film. The non-magnetic SmCo2 phase might function as isolator of SmCo grains, leading to a decrease of magnetic exchange coupling. Moreover, a Cr2O3 oxide layer which could protect the SmCo layer from oxidation formed at the surface of the Cr cap layer.
Cr/SmCo/Cr films with different SmCo thickness were deposited on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering,followed by an annealing process at 550 °C for 20 min.Experimental results showed that the SmCo film of 30 nm exhibited two-phase behavior in the demagnetization process,the obvious kink was observed near zero.For the SmCo film of 50 nm,the kink was invisible,and a single phase like behavior was obtained in the demagnetization process.The reversal behavior became consistent in the thicker films.Moreover,the coercivity reduced and the saturated magnetization increased obviously with the increasing thickness.X-ray diffraction results indicated that the average grain size of SmCo 5 in the thicker films were almost 30 nm,but the quantity of SmCo 5 grains increased with the increasing thickness,which enhanced the intergrain exchange coupling（IEC） of the SmCo 5 hard phases.The increase of IEC improved the magnetic properties of SmCo films with increasing thickness.
