Oblique-incidence anisotropy of the iron films evaporated at low substrate temperatures

Abstract

Large positive anisotropy was observed in the film plane of oblique-incidence iron films prepared at substrate temperatures lower than 320 K. The incidence angle was 60° and the pressure during evaporation was 4.0×10 -3 Pa. The anisotropy of the film was analysed by using two anisotropy fields, H k(1) and H k(2), which are attributable to the columnar growth and the bundle formation of columnar grains, respectively. The result obtained showed that the anisotropy in the film plane mainly comes from the formation of the bundle along the direction perpendicular to the incidence plane. The electron microscopic observation and optical measurement supported this conclusion.