The Effect of Cr Dosage on FePt Nanoparticle Formation

The search for high-density recording materials has been one of most active and vigorous field in the field of magnetism. $FePt-L1_{0}$ nanoparticle has emerged as a potential candidate because of its high anisotropy. In this paper, we provide an overview of recent work at Argonne National Laboratory that contributes to the ongoing dialogue concerning the relation between structure and properties of the FePt nanoparticle system. In particular we discuss the ability to control structure and properties via dosing with Cr. Cr-dosed FePt films were grown via molecular beam epitaxy and annealed at $550^{\circ}C$ in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber, and were studied with the surface magneto-optic Kerr effect (SMOKE), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). We found that small dosage of Cr helps to generate $L1_{0}$ phase FePt magnetic nanoparticles with small size, defined shape and regular spatial distribution on MgO (001) substrate. The nanostructures are ferromagnetic with high magnetic coercivity (${\sim}0.9T$) and magnetic easy axis in the desired out-of-plane orientation. We also show that controlling the lateral region where nanostructures exist is possible via artificial patterning with Cr.