Correlation between crystalline structure and soft magnetic properties in sputtered sendust films

We have investigated the change in crystallographic and magnetic properties of sendust thin films before/after annealing. Films were deposited by both rf diode and rf magnetron sputtering. rf diode-sputtered films did not possess soft magnetic properties in the as-deposited state. Films were subsequently annealed in both a conventional oven and a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) system. The coercivity of the films decreased from over 10 Oe to a minimum value of 0.6 Oe after annealing and a systematic shift in the (110) x-ray diffraction (XRD) peak position towards that of bulk sendust was observed. No additional XRD peaks were observed after annealing. The optimum annealing conditions to minimize coercivity was found to be 1–2 h at 550 °C. By comparison, films processed by RTA resulted in minimum coercivity of 0.9 Oe obtained after annealing for 2 min at 550 °C. XRD for films annealed by both RTA and oven annealing showed a similar decrease in the d spacing of the (110) plane, indicating a release of tensile...