Structural characteristics of bias sputtered CoCrTa/Cr films

Author

Deng, Youping ; Lambeth, David N. ; Laughlin, David E.

Author_Institution

Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

29

Issue

6

fYear

1993

fDate

11/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3676

Lastpage

3678

Abstract

Crystallographic texture and lattice spacings of bias sputtered CoCrTa/Cr and Co/Cr thin films have been studied by X-ray diffraction. While only an insignificant change in the Co lattice spacing for the Co/Cr films was observed as the substrate bias voltage was increased, the increase in the CoCrTa lattice spacing for the CoCrTa/Cr films was substantial. The CoCrTa films showed nearly unchanged lattice spacings after a vacuum annealing for film stress release. The lattice increase appeared to be linearly proportional to the Ta content in the CoCrTa film. This implies that the Ta atoms tend to substitute randomly onto the hexagonal sites within the CoCrTa crystal grains, and that very little, if any of the Ta segregates to the grain boundaries

Keywords

X-ray diffraction examination of materials; annealing; chromium; chromium alloys; cobalt alloys; grain boundary segregation; lattice constants; magnetic thin films; sputtered coatings; tantalum alloys; CoCrTa-Cr; RF diode sputtering; X-ray diffraction; bias sputtered thin film; crystallographic texture; film stress release; grain boundaries; lattice constants; lattice spacings; magnetic recording; segregation; structural characteristics; substrate bias voltage; vacuum annealing; Annealing; Chromium; Crystallography; Grain boundaries; Lattices; Sputtering; Stress; Substrates; Voltage; X-ray diffraction;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.281266

Filename

281266