Corrosion behavior of high coercivity FeSmN thin films for longitudinal magnetic recording media

The corrosion behavior of high coercivity FeSmN compound films is compared with reference samples in a 80/spl deg/C/80% relative humidity accelerated test environment. FeSm films were deposited onto heated substrates by dc magnetron sputtering and then annealed in-situ in nitrogen to form FeSmN. The results showed that the nitriding process remarkably improved the corrosion resistance and that FeSmN was more stable than commercial Hi8 metal evaporated and metal particle tapes. The conclusions are supported by separate electrochemical potentiodynamic polarization measurements. The relative stability of FeSmN combined with its excellent magnetic properties, as we reported earlier, makes the material an attractive choice for future recording media.