Sandwich Ag/[CoPt(3 nm)/C(3 nm)](5)/Ag films were deposited on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering. After annealing at 600 degrees C for 30 min, a nearly-perfect (001)-oriented L 1(0) CoPt film with extremely high perpendicular anisotropy was obtained when the thickness of Ag top-and underlayer were both equal to 5 nm. The strain energy caused by the Ag layer together with the diffusion of Ag and C atoms, resulted in the enhancement of the ordering degree of the L 10 CoPt phase and the development of the (001) texture of the films. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.