Magnetic properties and reliabilities of FeXN (X=Ti,Al,Hf,CoHf,CrHf) nanocrystalline thin film head materials

Author

Kim, K.H. ; Choi, H.W. ; Kim, J. ; Kim, S.R. ; Kim, K.Y. ; Plan, S.H. ; Kim, H.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Metall. & Mater. Sci., Hanyang Univ., Ansan, South Korea

Volume

36

Issue

5

fYear

2000

fDate

9/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2656

Lastpage

2659

Abstract

A series of FeN and FeXN (X=Ti,Al,Hf,CoHf,CrHf) films were prepared by reactive RF magnetron sputtering. These FeXN films exhibit good soft magnetic properties with low coercivity (<2 Oe) and high moment (15-20 kG). To investigate the reliability of these films, we performed the thermal stability and electrochemical corrosion test for pure Fe, Permalloy, FeN and FeXN films. The results show that the direction of the magnetic anisotropy of FeTiN, FeCoHfN and FeCrHfN is not nearly changed by the DC magnetic field of 100 Oe perpendicular to the easy axis at 150°C, for up to 3 hrs. The electrochemical corrosion tests were performed in 0.5 M NaCl electrolyte. Permalloy shows the best corrosion resistance in the films but the addition of Cr to FeHfN films significantly improves the corrosion resistance, to be nearly as good as Permalloy. This improvement results from the formation of a negative oxide layer

Keywords

coercive force; corrosion resistance; electrochemistry; iron compounds; magnetic anisotropy; magnetic heads; magnetic thin film devices; magnetic thin films; nanostructured materials; reliability; soft magnetic materials; sputtered coatings; thermal stability; 0.5 M NaCl electrolyte; Fe; FeAlN; FeCoHfN; FeCrHfN; FeHfN; FeN; FeNi; FeTiN; FeXN; FeXN (X=Ti,Al,Hf,CoHf,CrHf); Permalloy; corrosion resistance; electrochemical corrosion; magnetic anisotropy; nanocrystalline thin film head materials; negative oxide layer formation; reactive RF magnetron sputtering; reliability; soft magnetic properties; thermal stability; Corrosion; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic films; Magnetic properties; Performance evaluation; Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; Radio frequency; Soft magnetic materials; Sputtering; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.908550

Filename

908550