Effect of substrate and deposition rate on DC magnetron sputtered Co-Cr thin films

Effects of substrate and deposition rate were studied for DC magnetron sputtered CoCr thin films. The coercivity of the deposited CoCr thin films were nearly independent of the deposition rate over the range from 11Å/sec to 55Å/sec. The surface micrographs of the films reveal that the thermal conductive property of the substrate plays a crucial role in affecting the microstructure and that it affected such magnetic properties as . CoCr films grown on cover glass exhibited larger grains and films on Al and NiP (on Al) substrates exhibited the smallest grains while films grown on Si wafers exhibited inbetween grain diameters. CoCr films with the smallest grains (on Al and NiP substrates) exhibited the largest ratio and also the smallest Δθ50.