Magnetically soft and high‐saturation‐magnetization FeCo films fabricated by co‐sputtering

Abstract

AbstractMagnetically soft FeCo films with high saturation magnetization were successfully obtained by co‐sputtering Fe65Co35 films onto a very thin Co93Fe7 seed layer. The coercivity of single FeCo films on the substrate was markedly reduced by increasing the deposition temperature and appropriately selecting the composition. The effect of composition and thickness of a high‐Co‐concentration Co100–yFey (0 ≤ y ≤ 11) seed layer on the magnetic properties and structure of Co100–yFey (0–10 nm)/Fe65Co35 (100 nm) films was studied. It was observed that the texture of Fe65Co35 films changed from (110) to (200) on using a Co100–yFey seed layer. The appearance of (200) texture and film growth with less lattice strain improved the soft magnetic properties of FeCo films. A double‐layer Co93Fe7 (1 nm)/Fe65Co35 (100 nm) film was obtained with saturation magnetization μ0Ms = 2.4 T, easy‐axis coercivity Hce = 1 kA/m, hard‐axis coercivity Hch = 0.2 kA/m and anisotropy field HK = 6.4 kA/m. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)