Title :
Underlayer and substrate effects in RF-magnetron sputtered barium ferrite thin film media
Author :
Wee, A.T.A. ; Wang, J.P. ; Huan, A.C.H. ; Tan, L.P. ; Gopalakrishnan, R. ; Tan, K.L.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Phys., Nat. Univ. of Singapore, Singapore
fDate :
9/1/1997 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The effect of employing various sputtered underlayers and commercially available substrates in order to optimize the characteristics of barium ferrite (BaM) thin films for magnetic recording media have been studied. Our results show that the choice of underlayer or substrate controls the resultant surface morphology and magnetic properties of the BaM film. In particular, it was found that barium ferrite thin films with high coercivity, good squareness, low switching field distribution (>5000 Oe, 0.92, and 0.58, respectively) and possessing a c-axis in-plane orientation texture were achieved when deposited on an amorphous sputtered underlayer of Al2O3 . In addition, the use of an Al2O3 underlayer results in equiaxial barium ferrite grains which may allow a favorable reduction in intergranular interaction as evidenced by the characteristic ΔM curves
Keywords :
barium compounds; coercive force; ferrites; magnetic hysteresis; magnetic thin films; sputtered coatings; Al2O3; BaFe12O19; RF-magnetron sputtered barium ferrite thin film; coercivity; equiaxial grains; intergranular interaction; magnetic properties; magnetic recording; squareness; substrate effect; surface morphology; switching field; texture; underlayer effect; Amorphous materials; Barium; Coercive force; Ferrite films; Magnetic films; Magnetic properties; Magnetic recording; Sputtering; Substrates; Surface morphology;
Journal_Title :
Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on
