High moment soft magnetic FeTiN thin films for recording head materials

Soft magnetic properties and thermal stability of Fe-Ti-N alloys films have been investigated. Thin films with composition in the range of 8-10 at. % Ti, 10.5-14 at. % N, and balance Fe were prepared by reactive sputtering me thod. The films exhibit good soft magnetic properties in the as-deposited c ondition without any post heat treatment, e. g., low coercivity H-c similar to 1.5 Oe, high permeability mu similar to 3200 at 1 MHz and very high sat uration magnetization 4 pi M-s similar to 24 kG. The thermal stability of t hese films was also found to be good, e. g., H-c was less than 2 Oe, and 4 pi M-s was higher than 23 kG for the films annealed up to 500 degrees C. Th e high electrical resistivity rho similar to 100 mu Ohm cm of the films can minimize the eddy current loss in the high frequency applications. The com bination of high 4 pi M-s and relatively high anisotropy field H-a similar to 10 Oe in the film is conductive to the suppression of the undesirable fe rromagnetic resonance interfere up to the GHz frequency range. (C) 1999 Ame rican Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)04506-5].