Highly aligned (002) textured sputtered films of Pr(Fe12-y-zCoyMoz)Nx,
where y=0-2.5, and z=0.4-1.0 compounds have been successfully synthes
ized. Before nitriding, the films exhibited nonuniaxial soft magnetic
properties with room temperature coercivities of 0.70 kOe. A profound
change of magnetocrystalline anisotropy occurred on nitriding. X-ray d
iffraction traces showed that the ThMn12-type tetragonal structure was
retained with a saturating increase in cell volume over the first 15
min of nitriding time at 750 K. The coercivity, however, reached a max
imum for a nitriding time of 25 min at 750 K. Samples nitrided for tim
es greater than almost-equal-to 25 min were taken as fully nitrided wi
th almost-equal-to 1 N per ThMn12 formula unit. The samples slightly r
icher in Pr showed somewhat higher coercivity perpendicular to the fil
m plane as compared to stochiometric Pr(Fe,Co,Mo)12N films. From high
field measurements to 80 kOe, the maximum room temperature coercivity
perpendicular to the film plane was 9.4 kOe, which rose to 22.0 kOe at
10 K. The 4 piM, value at 80 kOe measured perpendicular to the film p
lane was 11.6 +/- 0.5 kG at 293 K, 12.5 kG at 10 K, for Pr1.04Fe10.36C
o1.16Mo0.44N samples, and 10.5 +/- 0.5 kG at 293 K for Pr1.05Fe11.17Mo
0.78N samples. After high field magnetization to 80 kOe, for measureme
nts perpendicular to the film plane, the static energy product was 23.
6 and 32.9 MG Oe at 293 and 10 K, respectively. The estimated anisotro
py fields were 96 and 144 kOe at 293 and 10 K, respectively, for low c
obalt film samples.