High rate deposition of Mn-Zn spinel ferrite thin films using reactive facing targets sputtering

Abstract

Summary form only given. Spinel ferrite thin film can be regarded as one of the hopeful candidates for a backlayer of perpendicular magnetic recording media because of its high resistivity and high permeability. Facing Targets Sputtering (FTS) system is suitable for the deposition of ferrite thin films because of the suppression of radiation damage to the growing films by the high energy negative oxygen ions. Ferrite thin films have been deposited usually by sputtering oxide target material, however, the deposition rate of it was quite low because of low sputtering power density to avoid large power loss in the bulk target and thermal effect. In order to apply spinel ferrite films to the backlayer, deposition rate should be increased to satisfy the productivity. In this study, Mn-Zn ferrite thin films were successfully deposited on Pt[111] underlayer by reactive FTS method in as-deposited state. The deposition rate was one order of magnitude higher than that of conventional method.