Compact sputtering apparatus for depositing Co–Cr alloy thin films in magnetic disks

Abstract

Co–Cr films deposited at excessively low Ar pressure P Ar often reveal critically poor c-axis orientation for the magnetron sputtering system. It has been found that high energy Ar atoms recoiled from the target plane would bombard heavily the growing films and degrade films' crystallographic characteristics. On the other hand, the facing targets sputtering (FTS) system could deposit the Co–Cr films with the excellent c-axis orientation even at P Ar as low as 0.02 Pa by optimizing the distance between targets D t–t. For example, the optimum value of D t–t was 105 mm for the targets of 100×100 mm 2 in size. The optimum conditions in FTS system were described for deposition of the Co–Cr films with the fine microstructure and the excellent c-axis orientation preferable as perpendicular recording layers, and the compact FTS apparatus of 250×250×200 mm 3 in size was designed in this study.