Preparation by sputtering of thick sendust film suited for recording head core

A 12 μm thick film with large saturation flux density, 11 000 G, and high effective permeability, such as 240 at 20 MHz, was prepared by using tetrode sputtering equipment from a ternary alloy that consisted of Si:10.5 wt.%, Al:5.6 wt.%, and Fe:bal. (Si rich Sendust alloy) at a target voltage of 1000 VDC. These were the best conditions for obtaining the minimum value of coercivity with the glass substrate in our experiments. The electric resistivity and Vickers hardness of the film became greater than the same qualities in bulk alloys. The increase in effective permeability at high frequencies, and the higher resistivity and hardness are believed to originate from the granular structure of the film. In this study, it was proved that the magnetic properties, especially the coercivity and the initial permeability of the film were due, not only to the effect of magnetostriction and crystalline anisotropy, but also to the effect of film structure.