High coercivity of CoCrTa on a very thin Cr underlayer

Author

Lin, J.C. ; Wu, C.D. ; Sivertsen, J.M.

Author_Institution

Mater. Res. Lab., Chutung, Taiwan

Volume

26

Issue

1

fYear

1990

fDate

1/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

39

Lastpage

41

Abstract

RF sputtered CoCrTa films (Co-15 wt.% Cr-4.7 wt.% Ta) deposited on various thicknesses of Cr underlayer (200 Å to 800 Å) for longitudinal magnetic recording were investigated. A coercivity of 1500 Oe can be easily obtained on a 200-Å Cr underlayer with low argon pressure (4 mtorr) and high substrate bias (-100 V). Emphasis has been placed on the influence of (101¯0) texture formation on the in-plane coercivity. Microstructure observation revealed by TEM shows that the grain size and grain structure were changed with the thickness of the Cr underlayer. Several mechanisms are proposed to explain the experimentally observed phenomena of argon pressure and substrate bias effects on the coercivity change of this CoCrTa/Cr film

Keywords

chromium alloys; cobalt alloys; coercive force; ferromagnetic properties of substances; grain size; magnetic thin films; sputtered coatings; tantalum alloys; texture; transmission electron microscope examination of materials; 200 to 800 angstrom; 4 mtorr; CoCrTa films; CoCrTa-Cr; RF sputtered; TEM; coercivity; grain size; grain structure; longitudinal magnetic recording; magnetic thin films; microstructure observation; substrate bias effects; texture formation; thin Cr underlayer; underlayer thickness dependence; Argon; Chromium; Coercive force; Crystal microstructure; Magnetic films; Magnetic recording; Radio frequency; Sputtering; Substrates; X-ray diffraction;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.50483

Filename

50483