Microstructure and magnetic properties of thin-film Co-Ni-Pt for longitudinal recording

Author

Mahvan, N. ; Zeltser, A.M. ; Lambeth, D.N. ; Laughlin, D.E. ; Kryder, M.H.

Author_Institution

Carnegie-Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

26

Issue

5

fYear

1990

fDate

9/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2277

Lastpage

2279

Abstract

The dependence of microstructure and magnetic properties of RF-sputtered thin films of Co-Ni-Pt deposited on NiP/Al and Cr/NiP/Al substrates was studied as a function of platinum composition, Ar pressure, and sputtering power. Transmission electron microscopy and electron and X-ray diffraction were utilized to determine the correlation between the observed coercivity, remanence squareness behavior, and microstructure. It has been found that in the case of films on NiP/Al substrates, the coercivity is controlled by the grain size, whereas it is dominated by the relative amount of the HCP and FCC cobalt phases for the films deposited on a 300-nm Cr underlayer. An increase in the Ar pressure leads to a further increase in coercivity for both substrates. This behavior was attributed to an increase in the grain size and a more favorable c-axis orientation of the HCP cobalt phase for Cr and NiP underlayers, respectively

Keywords

cobalt alloys; coercive force; crystal atomic structure of alloys; ferromagnetic properties of substances; magnetic tapes; magnetic thin films; nickel alloys; platinum alloys; sputtered coatings; CoNiPt-Cr-NiP-Al; CoNiPt-NiP-Al; Cr-NiP-Al substrate; NiP-Al substrate; RF-sputtered thin films; TEM analysis; X-ray diffraction; coercivity; grain size; magnetic properties; microstructure; remanence squareness behavior; sputtering power; Argon; Chromium; Coercive force; Electrons; Grain size; Magnetic films; Magnetic properties; Microstructure; Sputtering; Substrates;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.104696

Filename

104696