Magnetic properties of CoZr amorphous films prepared by low energy ion beam sputtering

In this paper, magnetic properties of CoZr amorphous films prepared using low-energy ion-beam sputtering are investigated by varying the accelerator voltage and beam current of a single-grid ion-beam sputtering system. It is shown that CoZr films become amorphous with a lower Zr content when the films are prepared with lower accelerator voltage or lower ion-beam current. It is also clarified that the saturation magnetostriction constant of amorphous CoZr film becomes smaller as the Zr content becomes smaller ; a film with a Zr content of approximately 3.3at% has a magnetostriction constant of zero without adding a third element such as Nb, Ta or Re. CoZr amorphous films with a saturation magnetization of more than 1.5T, a coercive force of less than 0.2Oe and a magnetostriction constant of zero could be obtained using low-energy ion-beam sputtering with an accelerator voltage of less than 300V.