The effects of annealing temperature on the magnetic properties of Fe75.5Zr8.3N16.2/SiO2 multilayer thin films

[Fe75.5Zr8.3N16.2(800 Angstrom)/SiO2 (250 Angstrom)](10) multilayer thin fi lms were fabricated by using an rf magnetron reactive sputtering method. Th e saturation magnetic flux density and the coercive force were measured as functions of the annealing temperature. The effective permeability at high frequencies and the thermal stability were also examined. The magnetic prop erties of the [Fe75.5Zr8.3N16.2(800 Angstrom)/SiO2(250 Angstrom)](10) multi layer thin films showed a saturation flux density of 1.08 T, a coercive for ce of 0.41 Oe, and an effective permeability of about 4000 at 1 MHz. The ob served good magnetic softness is attributed to the prohibition of the growt h of alpha-Fe grains due to the precipitation of nanocrystalline ZrN partic les. The sizes of the alpha-Fe grains and the nanocrystalline ZrN particles were 40 similar to 50 Angstrom and 10 similar to 15 Angstrom, respectively . The effective permeability of a FeZrN single-layer film decreased rapidly when the frequency exceeded 5 MHz. On the contrary, the effective permeabi lity of a multilayer film was around 2200 up to a frequency of 40 MHz.