THE EFFECT OF NITROGEN ON SOFT MAGNETISM IN FETAN FILMS

An attempt has been made to understand and explain the relationship be tween soft magnetism and nitrogen content in single layer FeTaN films deposited by de magnetron sputtering. The effect of nitrogen content o n film microstructure, crystallite size, saturation magnetization, mag netostriction, and coercivity is analyzed. Clear trends emerge from th is analysis. A linear relationship exists between nitrogen content and all the properties mentioned above with the exception of coercivity. The coercivity is observed to decrease suddenly on the addition of nit rogen, then remain flat over a large range of nitrogen contents, final ly increasing rapidly at high nitrogen contents. Permeability and anis otropy field measurements are also reported.