The effects of deposition and annealing conditions on crystallographic properties of sputtered barium ferrite thick films

Abstract

Abstract The development of devices combining a ferrite with a semiconductor chip is a major focus of current research and could make use of vacuum deposition techniques of magnetic films. Barium hexaferrite (BaFe12O19; BaM) thick films are deposited here using an rf non-reactive sputtering system. Because the as-deposited films are amorphous and non-magnetic, two kinds of post-deposition annealing are employed, which are referred to here as classic thermal annealing (CTA) and rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The effects of annealing conditions on the properties of BaM films are studied using vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with an EDX probe and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The first results show a good stoichiometry of the layer and a crystallization above 800 °C. The magnetic properties are closed to that of the bulk BaM. Progress is still necessary to obtain a temperature more compatible with microelectronic technologies (below 500 °C).