• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.26-29
• /
• 2006

We present the structural, magnetic, and electrical properties in the (Al,Mn)N films with various Mn concentrations grown by plasma-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy. X-ray diffraction analyses reveal that the (Al,Mn)N films have the wurtzite structure without secondary phases. All (Al,Mn)N films showed the ferromagnetic ordering. Particularly, ($Al_{1-x}Mn_{x}$)N film with x = 0.028 exhibited the highest magnetic moment per Mn atom at room temperature. Since all the films exhibit the insulating characteristics, the origin of ferromagnetism in (Al,Mn)N might be attributed to either indirect exchange interaction caused by virtual electron excitations from Mn acceptor level to the valence band within the samples or a percolation of bound magnetic polarons arisen from exchange interaction of localized carriers with magnetic impurities in a low carrier density regime.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.7 no.s1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 1998

The influence of the order-disorder structural transition on the magnetic and mageto-optical, and transport properties of Fe-Al and Co-Al alloy films has been investigated. The disordered states in the alloy films were prepared by vapor quenching deposition on glass substrates cooled by liquid nitrogen. The experimental study of the magento-optical properties of the ordered and disordered Fe-Al and Co-Al alloy films has been carried out in 1.05-5.0 eV energy range at room temperature. The transport properties have been measured in 2-300K temperature range with and without magnetic field of 0.5T. The influence of the order-disorder structural transition on the magnetic and magneto-optical properties was discussed by using the effective medium approximation and the structural defect approach. That on the temperature dependence of the resistivity was analyzed in a framework of the partial localization of the electronic states and the variable range hopping conductivity.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.341-344
• /
• 1999

We reported compositional separation(CS) into Co-enriched and Cri-enriched components inside the grains of Co-Cr based thin films prepared by rf sputtering. CS strongly depends on the sputtering conditions of substrate temperature and target composition. Tuning the microstructure of the Co-Cr films is important in order to employ the CS for high-density magnetic recording. We investigated the origin of CS from thermodynamic viewpoint. We employ a spinodal decomposition-like model to describe the origin of the CS in Co-Cr films. We consider the total free energy of the Co-Cr films as the sum of several free energies of; 1) thermodynamic mixing entropy of a binary solid solution, 2) magnetic ordering interaction(MOI) energy below the Curie temperature, and 3) excess interaction energy(XS) caused by the sputtering process as a function of temperature and composition. Those energies distorted the total free energy like the spinodal decomposition and caused the compositionally separated fine microstructure inside the grains. If the second derivative of the total free energy with respect to Cr composition becomes negative at a given substrate temperature, we may observe a metastable compositional separation inside the Co-Cr alloy films. We expect to exploit the microstructure of CS for ultra-high density magnetic recording.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 1998.07d
• /
• pp.1279-1281
• /
• 1998

The Co-Cr thin films are one of the most suitable candidates for perpendicular magnetic recording media. The facing targets sputtering(FTS) method has a advantage of preparing films over a wide range of working gas pressure on plasma-free substrates. In this study, we investigated the possibility of employing FTS system for depositing Co-Cr films, Co-Cr thin films were deposited with continuously sputter gas pressure ($P_{Ar}$ = 0.1 mTorr) by FTS method at temperature of $40^{\circ}C$. We find that the change of thickness and deposition rate of sputtered Co-Cr thin films affect crystal orientation and magnetic properties. Crystallographic and magnetic properties were evaluated by x-ray diffractometry(XRD) and vibrating sample magnetometer(VSM) respectively. It has been confirmed that the FTS method is very useful for preparing Co-Cr thin film recording media.

• Journal of Magnetics
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.119-122
• /
• 1999

Magnetic properties and crystal structures of (Fe1-XCoX) Pt (X = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) ternary thin films were investigated. The order-disorder phase transformation of FePt thin films during annealing was also studied by x-ray diffraction and M ssbauer spectroscopy. The magnetic thin films were deposited on glass substrates using a dc sputtering method and were subsequently annealed at 400~$700^{\circ}C$ in a high vacuum. The as-deposited films exhibited a high degree of the <111> preferred orientation and the preferred orientation was not destroyed even after the subsequent post annealing. The coercivity of the ($Fe_xCo_{1-x}$) Pt thin films annealed at $700^{\circ}C$ showed a minimum value at the equiatomic composition of the Fe and Co atoms. The ordered structure of the FePt alloy was thought to have formed from the disordered structure by an inhomogeneous process, which was confirmed by the asymmetric peak shapes and M ssbauer spectra.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.5 no.5
• /
• pp.716-719
• /
• 1995

Pd/(Pt/Co/Pt) modulated multilayer films have been deposited on various substrates with Pd/Pt buffer layers. Films grown at different temperatures have very distinct magnetic properties and surface microstructures. Atomic force(AFM) and scanning tunneling (STM) microscopies studies of these films reveal that films deposited at room temperature have small grain structures with an average grain size of about $140\;{\AA}$. However, much larger grains of about $1200\;{\AA}$ in size are observed in the films grown on buffer layers which were deposited at $500^{\circ}C$. These large grains are found to actually consist of smaller grains of about $170{\AA}$ in diameter. SQUID magnetic and Kerr hysteresis loop measurements indicate that multilayer films with large grains exhibit high magnetic coercivities of around 5 kOe. A subgrain growth model is proposed to understand the observed grain structures in the multilayers.

• Journal of Magnetics
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.116-120
• /
• 2004

Hexagonal barium-ferrite ($BaFe_{12}O_{19}$, magnetoplumbite structure; BaM) film with perpendicularly c-axis orientation was successfully deposited on (100) silicon substrates with an MgO (111) underlayer by rf diode sputtering and in-situ heating at $920^{\circ}C$. The magnetic and structural properties of 0.27 ${\mu}m$ thick BaM films on MgO (111) underlayers were compared to films of the same thickness deposited onto single-crystal MgO (111) and c-plane ($000{\ell}$) sapphire ($Al_2O_3$) substrates by vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), x-ray diffractometer (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The thickness dependence of MgO (111) underlayers on silicon wafer was found to have a large effect on both magnetic and structural properties of the BaM film. The thickness of 15 nm MgO (111) underlayers produced BaM films with almost identical magnetic and structural properties as the single-crystal substrates; this can be explained by the lower surface roughness for thinner underlayer thicknesses. The magnetization saturation ($M_s$) and the ratio $H_{cII}/H_{c{\bot}}$ for the BaM film with a 15 nm MgO (111) underlayer is 217 emu/cc and 0.24, respectively. This is similar to the results for the BaM films deposited on the single-crystal MgO (111) and sapphire substrates of 197 emu/cc and 0.10, 200 emu/cc and 0.12, respectively. Therefore, the proposed MgO (111) underlayer can be used in many applications to promote c-axis orientation without the cost of expensive substrates.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.14 no.11
• /
• pp.780-785
• /
• 2004

The degradation mechanism of soft magnetic properties of $Fe-Hf-N/Cr/SiO_2$ thin films reacted with a bonding glass was investigated. When $Fe-Hf-N/Cr/SiO_2$ films were annealed under $600^{\circ}C$ without the bonding glass, the compositions and the soft magnetic properties of Fe-Hf-N layers were not changed. However, after reaction with the bonding glass at $550^{\circ}C$, the soft magnetic properties of the film were degraded. At $600^{\circ}C$, the saturation magnetization of the reacted film decreased to 13.5 kG, and its coercivity increased to 4 Oe, and its effective permeability decreased to 700. It was founded that O diffused from the glass into the Fe-Hf-N layers during the reaction and generated $HfO_2$ phases. It was considered that the soft magnetic properties of the $Fe-Hf-N/Cr/SiO_2$ films reacted with the bonding glass were primarily degraded by the formation of the Fe-Hf-O-N layer of which the Fe content was below 60 $at\%$, and secondarily degraded by the Fe-Hf-O-N layer above 70 $at\%$.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.6 no.S1
• /
• pp.53-58
• /
• 1997

It is well known that the equiatomic FeAl alloy crystallizes in a paramagnetic CsCl structure and is very stable in a wide temperature range owing to a significant charge transfer from Al to Fe. A presence of structural defects normally enhances the magnetic and magneto-optical properties of this alloy. In this study spin-resolved photoemission and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) were carried out on both ordered and disordered $Fe_{0.52}Al_{0.48}$ alloy films. The disordered state in the alloy films was obtained by a vapor quenching deposition on cooled substrates. It is shown that the order-disorder transition in the Fe0.52Al0.48 alloy films leads to a significant change in the spin polarization. Form the MCD results the orbital and spin magnetic moments of the constituent atoms are obtained. According to the sum rule the spin and orbital magnetic moments of Fe in the disordered FeAl film are $\mu\frac{SR}{spin}=0.8\mu_B$ and $\mu\frac{SR}{orb}=0.14\mu_B$ respectively. The spin magnetic moment is also evaluated to be $\mu\frac{BR}{spin}=0.77\mu_B$ by the branching ration method employing a photon polarization of 90%.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.23-28
• /
• 1993

Thin films of soft magnetic Fe-Hf-C alloys with nanoscale crystallites were investigated in this study. The films were fabricated by an RF diode magnetron sputtering apparatus and subsequently annealed in vacuum. The soft magnetic properties of the films were observed to differ depending on the different substrates such as Corning 7059, $CaTiO_3$ and $Al_2O_3-TiC$ with various underlayer(Cr, $SiO_2$) thickness. This results may be due to the interdiffusion between the substrate and the magnetic layer and/or between the underlayer and the magnetic layer, rather than the microstructural change such as grain size. The Fe-Hf-C films with high permeability up to 4000(at 1 MHz) and saturation magnetization up to 16 kG were obtained in the vicinity of phase boundary between the crystalline and amorphous state when the size of ${\alpha}-Fe$ grains is about 5 nm. And also the films were found to have thermal stability up to $600^{\circ}C$.