Amorphous Fe-B-Si magnetic films by reactive sputtering from a pure iron source

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The author has successfully used reactive sputtering to fabricate amorphous magnetic thin films with chemical and physical properties similar to those of Metglas■. The sputtering target was commercially available mild steel. The amount of each metalloid in the deposited thin film was controlled by varying the partial pressures of silane and diborane in the sputtering plasma. Total metalloid concentrations were varied over the range of 0–50 at. %. A sample containing 76% Fe:16.5% B:3% Si:3% C was found to be amorphous and to have good soft magnetic properties. This sample had a well-defined uniaxial anisotropy in the plane of the film with an easy axis coercivity of 4.5 Oe. The rf permeability (μ′) of this 2000-Å-thick sample was greater than 1000 from 0 to 900 MHz.