Dependence of magnetic properties of Fe/Al multilayers on layer thickness and annealing temperature

It is well known that the magnetic and electrical properties of Fe film is strongly dependent on their crystal structure and the grain size. Fe/AI multilayered films deposited by ion beam sputtering have exhibited soft magnetic properties. In this study, the relationship between the Crystallographic and magnetic characteristics and the thickness of Fe and AI layers and post annealing temperature has been investigate for the multilayers deposited by using Ar and Kr as sputtering gas. Ar and Kr pressures in the ion source a t a 0.1 and 0.05 mTorr, respectively. The planar targets of Fe and AI with purity above 99.99% were sputtered by the ions extracted at acceleration voltage of 500V from the source. The layer thicknesses of Fe and AI layers 1_Fe and 1_Al were in the range of 20 - 120 and 3 - 50 Å, respectively. Post annealing process were performed at the temperature of 150 and 300^°C in a evacuated chamber during 1 hour. Crystallographic and magnetic characteristics were analysed by X-ray diffractometry and determined by VSM, respectively. The relative permeability μ_r were evaluated by shunt core method at frequency of 4 MHz.