Magnetic properties of Fe-Si-N films sputtered in (Ar+N2) plasma.

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Abstract
Soft magnetic properties of Fe-Si alloy films sputtered in (Ar+N2) plasma were examined and a discussion was developed for the relations between the metallurgical structure such as the lattice strain, the grain size and the permeability, μeff. The total magnetic anisotropy in each of the grains for various Fe-Si alloys was calculated by considering the magnetoelastic energy due to the lattice strain experimentally determined. Changes of μeff in films experimentally obtained agree well with the calculated total anisotropy change as a function of Si concentration and N2 flow ratio. However, for the magnitude of μeff this composition dependence of μeff against N2 flow ratio is clearly classified as a function of the grain size. As a conclusion, soft magnetic properties of Fe-Si alloy sputtered films were seen to be concerned with both the reduction of the total anisotropy due to the lattice strain from bcc to bet structure and also the grain size.