NiAl seed layer for obliquely sputtered thin-film tape

Author

Nguyen, L.T. ; Hozoi, A. ; Lodder, J.C.

Author_Institution

Fac. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands

Volume

40

Issue

4

fYear

2004

fDate

7/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2401

Lastpage

2403

Abstract

Two types of magnetic tape were produced by oblique sputtering with the incident angle of 65±5°. One consists of a 180-nm Cr underlayer layer and 20-nm Co layer. The other consists of a 90-nm NiAl seed layer, 90-nm Cr intermediate layer, and 20-nm Co layer. It is shown that the use of NiAl seed layer allows further reduction of the Co grain size and improves the film smoothness. The fine microstructure obtained in the NiAl seed layer resulted in smaller Co grains with more uniform size distribution. This caused the switching field distribution to become narrower, while the values of the squareness and coercivity remained high. The recording performances were also improved for the tape with NiAl seed layer.

Keywords

grain size; magnetic switching; magnetic tapes; magnetic thin film devices; sputter deposition; surface structure; 180 nm; 20 nm; 90 nm; Co-NiAl-Cr; film smoothness; fine microstructure; grain size reduction; high coercivity value; incident angle; intermediate layer; magnetic tape; oblique sputtering; obliquely sputtered thin-film tape; recording performances; recording tape; seed layer; squareness value; switching field distribution; uniform size distribution; Chromium; Cobalt alloys; Coercive force; Grain size; Magnetic films; Magnetic heads; Magnetic recording; Microstructure; Sputtering; Substrates; Oblique sputtering; recording tape; underlayer;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2004.829816

Filename

1325518