Magnetic and microstructural properties of thick sputtered NdFeB films.

Author

Walther, A. ; Khlopkov, K. ; May, F. ; Dempsey, N. ; Gutfleisch, O.

Author_Institution

CNRS, Grenoble

fYear

2006

fDate

8-12 May 2006

Firstpage

223

Lastpage

223

Abstract

Thick NdFeB films have been prepared by triode sputtering with a deposition rate of 20 mum/hour. Films were deposited on either "cool" substrates or onto substrates heated in the range 300-500degC and then annealed at 750degC for 10 minutes. Magnetic characterisation was carried out at room temperature with an extraction magnetometer in fields of up to 10 T. Microstructures were observed with a LEO field emission gun FEG-SEM. The degree of magnetic texture of the annealed films and microstructure was found to depend on the substrate temperature. The observed grain refinement to the precipitation during deposition of nanocrystals of NdFeB which act as nucleation sites during post-deposition annealing. Thick film hard magnets are required for application in magnetic MEMS. The microstructural analysis is necessary for the understanding and thus the optimisation of the magnetic properties of such thick film magnets.

Keywords

annealing; boron alloys; coercive force; ferromagnetic materials; grain refinement; iron alloys; magnetic thin films; metallic thin films; nanostructured materials; neodymium alloys; nucleation; permanent magnets; precipitation; scanning electron microscopy; sputtered coatings; texture; LEO field emission gun FEG-SEM; NdFeB; annealing; grain refinement; magnetic properties; magnetic texture; magnetometer; microstructural properties; nanocrystals; nucleation; precipitation; temperature 293 K to 298 K; temperature 300 C to 500 C; temperature 750 C; thick film hard magnets; time 10 min; triode sputtering; Annealing; Magnetic films; Magnetic properties; Magnetometers; Magnets; Microstructure; Sputtering; Substrates; Temperature; Thick films;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Magnetics Conference, 2006. INTERMAG 2006. IEEE International

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA

Print_ISBN

1-4244-1479-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/INTMAG.2006.375805

Filename

4261656