Analysis of triple Co alloy layer magnetic thin films with different bias configuration

Abstract

Triple-layer CoCrPt magnetic thin films with different bias configurations were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering on CrV and glass substrate. In-plane coercivity (Hc) showed an increase for those films with bias sputtered CoCrPt layer. The in-plane coercivity (Hc) was optimized in NB-B-NB type film prepared with substrate heating at 300°C (NB: no bias and B: rf bias applied in sputtering). Better in-plane crystal texture was observed in NB-B-NB type film by XRD and this is believed to be the main reason for the coercivity improvement. The other resource for the coercivity improvement was due to the decoupling of intergrain magnetic interactions. This was discussed accordingly to the results obtained from TEM, MFM and SIMS depth profiling.