Structural and magnetic properties of amorphous CoxZr100−x films

Magnetometry and first-principles density functional theory-based calculations were used to investigate the concentration dependence of magnetic properties of amorphous ${\mathrm{Co}}_{x}{\mathrm{Zr}}_{100\ensuremath{-}x}$ alloys. A linear increase in saturation magnetization $({M}_{s})$ is observed in both the experiments and calculations. Samples with Co content of at least 62 at.% are inferred to be ferromagnetic at 5 K. The experimentally determined ordering temperature is found to scale quadratically with Co concentration indicating a complex interplay between local structural motifs and magnetic parameters such as exchange interaction and anisotropy.