CORROSION BEHAVIOR OF HIGH COERCIVITY FESMN THIN-FILMS FOR LONGITUDINAL MAGNETIC RECORDING MEDIA

The corrosion behavior of high coercivity FeSmN compound films is comp ared with reference samples in a 80 degrees C/80% relative humidity ac celerated test environment. FeSm films were deposited onto heated subs trates by dc magnetron sputtering and then annealed in-situ in nitroge n to form FeSmN. The results showed that the nitriding process remarka bly improved the corrosion resistance and that FeSmN was more stable t han commercial Hi8 metal evaporated and metal particle tapes. The conc lusions are supported by separate electrochemical potentiodynamic pola rization measurements. The relative stability of FeSmN combined with i ts excellent magnetic properties, as we reported earlier, makes the ma terial an attractive choice for future recording media.