Compositionally separated microstructure of Co-Cr films prepared by electron-cyclotron-resonance plasma sputtering

Author

Hirono, Shigeru ; Igarashi, Masaru ; Koshimoto, Yasuhiro ; Maeda, Yasushi

Author_Institution

NTT Interdisciplinary Res. Lab., Tokyo, Japan

Volume

31

Issue

6

fYear

1995

fDate

11/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2812

Lastpage

2814

Abstract

Compositional separation (CS) has been observed to occur in Co-Cr based alloy thin films grown at elevated substrate temperatures. This CS produces fine Co-enriched regions within grains, which are expected to give a magnetic microstructure suitable for high-density recording. We studied the compositional microstructure in Co-Cr films grown by electron-cyclotron-resonance plasma (ECR) sputtering with a view to reducing media noise and increasing recording density. ECR sputtering produced fine grains which supported particularly small and closely packed Co-enriched regions (less than 5 nm spacing) at elevated substrate temperature. This compositional microstructure is finer than that of RF-sputtered Co-Cr films. ECR sputtering simultaneously improves the magnetic properties and refines the compositional microstructure

Keywords

chromium alloys; cobalt alloys; ferromagnetic materials; magnetic recording; magnetic thin films; sputtered coatings; Co-Cr; Co-Cr thin films; compositional microstructure; compositional separation; electron-cyclotron-resonance plasma sputtering; grain structure; high-density recording; magnetic properties; noise; substrate temperature; Magnetic films; Magnetic noise; Magnetic properties; Magnetic recording; Micromagnetics; Microstructure; Noise reduction; Plasma density; Plasma temperature; Sputtering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.490160

Filename

490160