Soft magnetic properties of Fe-N and Fe-Si-N thin films sputtered in (Ar+N/sub 2/) plasma

The soft magnetic properties of sputtered (0 approximately 3-wt%) Si-Fe alloy thin films fabricated in (Ar+N/sub 2/) plasma were investigated in connection with metallurgical structure. 2.7-wt% Si-Fe film annealed at 400 degrees C shows a high effective permeability mu /sub eff/ of about 1600 at 5 MHz. It has been observed that this film consists of alpha -Fe with a grain size of less than 150 AA and a slight expansion of lattice spacing of the