Surface Morphology of the Grain of Permalloy Films

Surface morphologies of sputtered permalloy films were investigated by SEM. Grain sizes decreased with slanting of the substrate surface or the presence of N2 in the sputtering gas. The preferred orientations of permalloy films were changed from ≪111≫ to ≪100≫ by the N2 presence. SEM observations of crystal orientations suggested that the changes in the preferred orientations of permalloy films were caused by reduction of the surface energy, which was, in turn, thought to be caused by nitrogen adsorption.