High coercivity FeSmN thin films for longitudinal magnetic recording media

Author

Wang, D. ; Doyle, W.D.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Alabama Univ., Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

Volume

30

Issue

6

fYear

1994

fDate

11/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

4032

Lastpage

4034

Abstract

FeSm thin films with an Fe/Sm atomic ratio of 9.2 have been deposited by dc magnetron sputtering on Ta and Cu substrates held at 400°C. FeSmN films with in-plane easy axes were obtained by annealing the FeSm films in-situ under a nitrogen atmosphere of 300 Torr at a temperature of 400°C. The coercivity of the FeSmN films varies from 2 kOe to as high as 7 kOe depending on the deposition conditions. Typical FeSmN films have a magnetization of ~140 emu/g, a squareness of 0.90 and a coercivity squareness of 0.75. It was found that when a Cr underlayer was deposited at a substrate temperature of 350°C, FeSmN films of 150 nm thickness with an in-plane coercivity of 6.4 kOe, a squareness of 0.90 and a coercivity squareness of 0.6 were obtained

Keywords

annealing; coercive force; ferromagnetic materials; iron alloys; magnetic recording; magnetic thin films; magnetisation; samarium alloys; sputtered coatings; 300 torr; 350 C; 400 C; Cr; Cr underlayer; Cu; Cu substrates; DC magnetron sputtering; FeSmN; Ta; Ta substrates; coercivity; coercivity squareness; easy axes; high coercivity FeSmN thin films; longitudinal magnetic recording; magnetization; nitrogen annealing; squareness; Annealing; Atmosphere; Atomic layer deposition; Coercive force; Iron; Magnetic films; Magnetization; Nitrogen; Sputtering; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.333980

Filename

333980