Reactive ion etching of FePt using inductively coupled plasma

We propose a reactive ion etching (RIE) process of an L10-FePt film which is expected as one of the promising materials for the perpendicular magnetic recording media. The etching was carried out using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) RIE system and an etching gas combination of CH4/O2/NH3 was employed. The L10-FePt films were deposited on (1 0 0)-oriented MgO substrates using a magnetron sputtering system. The etching masks of Ti were patterned on the FePt films lithographically. The etch rates of ∼16 and ∼0 nm/min were obtained for the FePt film and the Ti mask, respectively. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses provided the average roughness (Ra) value of 0.95 nm for the etched FePt surface, that is, a very flat etched surface was obtained. Those results show that the highly selective RIE process of L10-FePt was successfully realized in the present study.