Annealing effect on magnetostatic properties of nanocomposite Fe‐Zr‐N films

Abstract

Results on the investigation of the magnetic properties and microstructure of the as-deposited and annealed at T = 200-700 o C Fe-Zr-N films are presented. The Fe-Zr-N films with the 0.7-µm thickness were deposited by RF sputtering onto glass square substrates. Structural properties of the films were studied by means of the X-ray diffraction technique. The bulk magnetic characteristics of the films have been measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The study of the near-surface magnetic properties of the Fe-Zr-N samples was carried out employing magneto-optical micromagnetometer with a surface sensitivity of about 20 nm of the thickness depth. The strong annealing effect on the values of the coercivity H C and the saturation field H S of the films was revealed. The values of H C and H S of the films, annealed at T = 450 and 500 o C, were found to be minimal. The temperature dependences of H C and H S were explained by microstructure changes of the studied films after their post-deposition heat treatment.

Effect of Nb-doping on the structure, magnetic, and mechanical properties for Fe–N films synthesized by facing-targets magnetron sputtering

“…Given the potential applications as magnetic heads for high-density recording, the film of iron nitride is required to be soft and high thermal stability as well. In trying to improve the magnetic and other properties of Fe-N film, investigations on transition metal such as Ti, Ta, Nb, etc., doping have been carried out widely and the doping effects on the soft magnetic properties such as low coercivity have been explored [8][9][10][11][12]. Also, for the application as a magnetic head, the low fly heights require a higher durability for these soft magnetic alloys [13,14], which is determined by their mechanical properties.…”