Effect of sputtering conditions, annealing and the microstructure of Cr underlayer on the magnetic properties of CoNiCr/Cr thin films

The effects of RF power P, substrate heating, and substrate bias V/sub b/ on the structure and magnetic properties of CoNiCr thin films were studied. The films were deposited on glass and Cr/glass substrates by RF diode sputtering. For films deposited at higher P and at elevated substrate temperature T/sub s/, the grain size increased. The texture in the Cr underlayer increased at higher Ts; this was accompanied by an increase in the texture in the CoNiCr film. In-plane coercivity H/sub c/ also increased with P and T/sub s/; this is probably related to the increase in grain size as well as in CoNiCr texture. In the samples deposited with an applied V/sub b/, the grains were considerably larger than in those prepared without bias. The H/sub c/ value and the magnetic domain morphology also changed with V/sub b/; this is probably related to the increase in grain size. The H/sub c/ of CoNiCr thin films also increased following annealing in vacuum.<
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