Magnetism of noncolinear amorphous DyCo3 and TbCo3 thin films

The magnetization of amorphous DyCo3 and TbCo3 is studied by magnetometry, anomalous Hall effect and magneto-optic Kerr effect to understand the temperature-dependent magnetic structure. A square magnetic hysteresis loop with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and coercivity that reaches 3.5 T in the vicinity of the compensation temperature is seen in thin films. An anhysteretic soft component, seen in the magnetization of some films but not in their Hall or Kerr loops is an artefact due to sputter-deposition on the sides of the substrate. The temperature-dependence of the net rare earth moment from 4-300K is deduced, using the cobalt moment in amorphous YxCo1-x. The single-ion anisotropy of the quadrupole moments of the 4f atoms in the randomly-oriented local electrostatic field gradient overcomes their exchange coupling to the cobalt subnetwork, resulting in a sperimagnetic ground state where spins of the noncollinear rare-earth subnetwork are modelled by a distribution of rare earth moments within a cone whose axis is antiparallel to the ferromagnetic axis z of the cobalt subnetwork. The reduced magnetization (Jz)/J at T=0 is calculated from an atomic Hamiltonian as a function of the ratio of anisotropy to exchange energy per rare-earth atom for a range of angles between the local anisotropy axis and -z and then averaged over all directions in a hemisphere. The experimental and calculated values of (J-z)/J are close to 0.7 at low temperature for both Dy and Tb. On increasing temperature, the magnitude of the rare earth moment and the local random anisotropy that creates the cone are reduced; the cone closes and the structure approaches collinear ferrimagnetism well above ambient temperature. An asymmetric spin flop of the exchange-coupled subnetworks appears in the vicinity of the magnetization compensation temperatures of 175K for amorphous Dy0.25Co0.75 and 200 K for amorphous TbCo3.