Materials Science Forum, Vol.373-3, 777-780, 2001
Thin film soft magnetic Fe-Zr-Al-N-O alloys
Soft magnetic materials with high saturation flux density (similar to 2T) are required for magnetic head cores which operates in a contact with high-coercive storage media. Such level of properties can be provided in nanocrystalline Fe-rich alloys containing metals of III, IV, V groups and interstitial elements. The materials can be produced as amorphous thin films and then be crystallized by annealing until a grain size be equal similar to 10 nm. In the work (Fe - (1.0..1.3) at.% Zr - (1.4..1.5) at.% Al)(1-x-y)NxOy alloys were investigated. Thin films of the alloys were produced by a magnetron sputtering of Fe-Zr-Al targets in atmosphere of Ar with both N-2 and O-2. An original design of the sputtering unit, which provided high sputter rate of high magnetic conductive Fe-rich target, was developed and used. An interconnection between conditions of the sputtering and subsequent annealing from one side and both a structure and chemical composition of the films from another side was studied.
Keywords:thin film alloys;chemical and phase composition;structure;magnetron spattering;amorphous phase;soft magnetic alloys