The use of Co/sub 79/Cr/sub 21/ undercoats for controlling the soft magnetic properties of RF sputtered Permalloy thin films

The effects of Co/sub 79/Cr/sub 21/ undercoats and nucleating layers on the coercive force, anisotropy field, and 5 MHz to 100 MHz complex permeability spectra of magnetically soft, Ni/sub 81/Fe/sub 19/ thin films RF sputtered onto glass substrates are investigated. While very thin layers of HCP oriented Co/sub 79/Cr/sub 21//spl ap/5 nm, do not affect the coercive force of the NiFe layer, they do increase the measured anisotropy. Thicker CoCr layers increase both the coercive force and anisotropy field. The 5 nm layers of Co/sub 79/Cr/sub 21/ act to increase the magnitude of the /spl mu/' spectra, /spl mu/=/spl mu/'-j/spl mu/", while decreasing the /spl mu/" spectra; thicker layers of CoCr reduce both /spl mu/' and /spl mu/".