Preparation and characterization of magnetron-sputtered SmCo films

Manager, SOLL Microfabrication Facility, Swinburne University of Technology
(the work presented in this seminar was done in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT)

3.30pm, Friday 27 June 2003, AR103 Seminar Room, Graduate Research Centre

SmCo films were prepared onto Cr/Si and Cr/SiO2/Si at 600ºC using DC magnetron sputtering technique at an argon pressure of 10 mTorr by applying a negative substrate bias in the range 0 to -100 V. The films were characterised using AFM, XRD and SQUID. AFM surface topographic image analysis showed that increasing the substrate bias to -60V resulted in a decreased grain size and improved film densification. Films deposited with substrate biases more than -60 V exhibited relatively porous boundaries and an increased grain size. XRD results indicated that films deposited at -60V exhibited predominately Sm₂Co₁₇ phase with (110) orientation. The in-plane hysteresis loops measured at room temperature indicated that the films deposited at -60V exhibited an intrinsic coercivity of 11.64 kOe.

This work showed that the films with best magnetic properties were obtained at -60 V, where the grain sizes were relatively smaller, and there was better in-plane texturing with a relatively larger volume fraction of SmCo crystallites. The effect of varying substrate bias on these aspects of the films is discussed in detail.

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