Fine structures and magnetic properties of FeCo granular thin films with plasma polymerized (C4F8)n matrix

Abstract In this paper a method for polymerization of fluorocarbon gas in argon plasma to obtain a novel granular structure was reported. We prepared granular films where FeCo fine particles were distributed in plasma-polymerized fluorocarbon matrix by a facing-targets RF magnetron sputtering method, and investigated the correlation between their structures and magnetic properties. The magnetization of the films prepared with the partial pressure of fluorocarbon gas between 0 and 1.0 mTorr decreased linearly, because the FeCo content in a unit volume of a film decreased when a polymerized material was used as the matrix. However, the coercivity of the films decreased drastically with increasing the partial pressure of fluorocarbon gas above 0.4 mTorr. This is because the magnetic anisotropy of FeCo particles is decreased by the decrease of grain size. It was confirmed by a TEM observation that the FeCo–(C 4 F 8 ) n films had the granular structure which was constituted by the very fine FeCo particles and the plasma-polymerized fluorocarbon matrix. For the film deposited at the partial pressure of fluorocarbon gas of 0.4 mTorr, the size of FeCo magnetic particles is about 20 nm. On the other hand, the size of FeCo particles is decreased to about 8 nm when the film deposited at the partial pressure of fluorocarbon gas of 0.8 mTorr and its distribution is small.