Oxidation of seed-layer for improved magnetic and recording performance of thin-film rigid discs

The effect of oxidation of various seed layers for longitudinal media is described. Sputtered Ni/sub 3/P exposed to controlled quantities of atmospheric gas and sputtering seed layers of Ti and Cr in an atmosphere of oxygen and argon are described. An appreciable increase of the coercivity and the coercivity squareness was observed. The observed improvements were attributed to the presence of an oxide layer that formed on the surface of the sputtered films as a result of oxidation. This oxidation was shown to affect the microstructure of the deposits, the more significant of which is narrowing of the grain size distribution of the subsequent layers. To a lesser extent, the seed layers seem to reduce the average grain size of the subsequent deposits.<
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