Soft Magnetic Properties of CoNbZr amorphous Films with Pd addition

The present paper is to investigate the phase stability and soft magnetic properties of amorphous CoNbZr films when Pd is added as a substitution for CoNbZr alloys. The films were prepared by a RF magnetron sputtering method. The CoNbZrPd films deposited on Si wafers exhibited amorphous structures being independent upon the amount of Pd added in the films. On the addition of 4.34% Pd, the excellent soft magnetic characteristics of the films were observed with a coercive force of 0.54 Oe and an anisotropy field of 11 Oe, whereas a coercive force of 1 Oe and an anisotropy field of 3.5 Oe were shown in the film without the addition of Pd. The increased anisotropy field and low coercive force of the films may be attributed to the occupancy of Pd in the preferred sites parallel to the external magnetic field applied on the deposition process. A permeability of about 1100 was kept constant in the operation frequency ranging up to 100 MHz, which can be explained by the Landau-Lifshitz formula.