Soft magnetic properties of high moment FeCoV/CoNbZr multilayers

Summary form only given. The use of high coercivity recording media requires the development of very high saturation magnetization soft magnetic materials for recording heads. It is well known that the saturation magnetisation of Fe/sub 49/Co/sub 49/V/sub 2/ (FeCoV) alloy is as high as (4/spl pi/M/sub s/=) 23 kG (R.M. Bozorth, 1993). This film also exhibits high Curie temperature and good mechanical properties. However, it is difficult to obtain good soft magnetic properties required for head applications. In this work, the effect of lamination of FeCoV films with amorphous Co/sub 91/Nb/sub 6/Zr/sub 3/ films on the soft magnetic properties was studied. (FeCoV t/sub 1//CoNbZr t/sub 2/)/sub n/ laminates were deposited by RF-sputtering with base pressure below 2/spl times/10/sup -7/ torr and Ar pressure of 3 mtorr. Films were subsequently annealed in Ar atmosphere at temperatures up to 400/spl deg/C. Magnetic properties were measured using a BH loop plotter. A cross-sectional TEM specimen was prepared using FIB milling and examined using a JEOL 4000EX TEM. Results showed that the soft magnetic properties of FeCoV films were significantly improved by lamination and subsequent magnetic annealing. Uniaxial anisotropy films with M/sub s/ as high as 20 kG and H/sub c/ smaller than 1 Oe were obtained.