PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FINEMET AMORPHOUS MAGNETIC THIN-FILMS WITH ENHANCED CU CONTENT

Finemet amorphous alloys are in the focus of interest because they bec ome especially good soft magnetic materials after partial nanocrystall isation. Cu is an important component of the alloy, however, its role in the recrystallisation process is still not clear. The soft magnetic properties may be further improved by increasing the Cu content, howe ver, by the normally used quenching preparation method, the ratio of C u remains under 5 at.%. We prepared amorphous thin film samples with C u content up to 35 at.% by co-sputtering an original finemet ribbon an d simultaneously a Cu target onto a thermally oxidised Si(100) substra te. The samples were characterised by XRD, UPS, and XPS. According to the XRD measurements, there was no significant Cu precipitation. The C u 3d originated states of the valence band gradually developed towards the bulk Cu valence band density of states, although even in the samp le containing 35 at.% Cu, significant differences were observed when c ompared to the bulk data. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.