Preparation and structure of rare earth transition metal alloy thin films

Abstract

Quaternary GdTbFeCo alloy thin films with various thicknesses from 30 to 700nm have been rf-magnetron sputtered onto glass substrates, single crystal silicon wafers for SEM observations and carbon-coated 3mm diameter copper grids for TEM from the composite target made of an Fe 80Co 20 powder alloy compact disk and Gd, Tb chips placed on the surface. The amorphous GdTbFeCo alloy thin films deposited by the present process are very uniform in thickness and composition. SEM and TEM observations show that the GdTbFeCo thin films are very smooth, dense and morphologically featureless. These results suggest that the sputter processing methods in our laboratory can be used to fabricate high quality rare earth-transition metal alloy thin films.