Effect of electrolyte additives on structural and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrous tungsten phosphorous based thin films

Abstract

This work used urea as a cross - linking agent and phosphorous as precursors to electrodeposit crystalline Co-Fe-W-P thin films at a pH of around 8. To get the ideal soft magnetic characteristics needed for the next generation magnetic head core, electrodeposition conditions have to be altered. The formed films were characterised using SEM, EDAX, XRD, and VSM. The deposited films' SEM micrographs showed more homogeneous surface morphology and no micro-voids. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the films had an FCC phase structure. All of the coatings were nanocrystalline, as determined by calculating the average crystal size of the films using the debye Scherrer equation. The VSM findings showed that as grain size decreased, the coercivity of something like the nanocrystalline films drastically decreased. However, the chemical makeup of the films had a considerable impact on the magnetic moment, although grain size had little impact.