Crystallographic properties of magnetron sputtered barium ferrite films

The development of devices combining a ferrite with a semiconductor chip is a major focus of current research. Barium hexaferrite (BaFe12O19 or BaM) thick films are deposited here using a RF magnetron sputtering system. Films are amorphous and non magnetic after deposition. Post-deposition thermal annealing is employed to make the films crystallize. The effects of the substrate, thermal annealing process, thickness, substrate temperature on crystallographic properties and stoichiometry are studied using a X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and Rutherford back-scattering (RBS). The in-depth homogeneity of Ba, Fe and O is evaluated by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). udy shows a good crystallization of BaM films and there is a preferential orientation among the crystallographic planes (1 0 1), (2 0 0), (2 0 3), (1 0 2), (1 1 0) and (2 0 5) when BaM films are prepared at low RF power and when the substrate is heated. For several elaboration parameters, grains size is in the range of 25 and 40 nm and BaM films are stoichiometric with regard to the target stoichiometry.