Fabrication and mechanical characterization of rare earth permanent magnet SmCo5 films

Abstract This study reports mechanical properties of rare earth permanent magnet (REPM) SmCo 5 thin films fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering technique. 1 μm thick SmCo 5 thin films were grown on Si (100) substrate at room temperature, and later they were annealed at 400 °C. Great care has been taken to decrease O 2 in the chamber throughout deposition. Mechanical and Structural properties of SmCo 5 thin films were researched using the nanoindentation and in situ scanning probe microscopy (SPM), Grazing Incident X-ray Diffraction (GIXRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) techniques. Nanoindentation-induced plasticity of SmCo 5 thin film was characterized by in situ SPM imaging of indented cross-sections. Nanoindentation results show load-displacement curves are continuous and smooth that there is no pile-up and sink-in behavior. Furthermore, both elastic modulus and nanohardness values of REPM SmCo 5 exhibit peak load dependence. Nanohardness increases with increasing indentation test load, while the reduced modulus decrease with increasing indentation test load. The obtained values of the intrinsic nanohardness and intrinsic reduced modulus are 3.47 ± 0.07 GPa and 43.09 ± 1.60 GPa, respectively.