Parametric Characterizations of Sputtered Fe/Al Multilayer Thin Films

Abstract

This study contains parametric characterizations of four different series of Fe/Al multilayer thin films sputtered under thicknesses of Al layers (7.5, 35 and 95 nm), deposition rates (0.02 and 0.06 nm/s), Fe layer thicknesses (7.5, 12.5 and 27.5 nm) and total thicknesses (100, 125 and 175 nm), separately. The X-ray diffraction measurements showed that all films have a mixture of face-centered cubic (fcc) and body-centered cubic (bcc) phase. The face-centered cubic (fcc) and mostly body-centered cubic (bcc) phase turned to the mostly fcc and bcc phase as the thickness of Al layer increased. On the other hand, the intensity of peaks belongs to bcc structure increased and mostly bcc structure was detected when the deposition rate increased. The roughness on the surfaces of Fe/Al multilayer increased as Al layer thickness decreased and deposition rate of layers increased. Saturation magnetization value changed coherently with the film content for all films. Coercivity, Hc value was significantly affected by different surface morphologies, and granular surface caused higher Hc values for Fe/Al multilayer thin films. It was found that crystalline structure, surface properties and magnetic properties of Fe/Al multilayer thin films depend strongly on the deposition parameters.