No 1, Vol. 5, 2003 
 

COERCIVITY AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF NANO-SCALE FePtCr-SiN THIN FILMS

A.C. Sun1, P.C. Kuo1, Y.D. Yao2, S.C. Chen3, C.C. Chiang1 and H.L. Huang4

1 Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
2 Institute of Physics, Academia, Taipei 115, Taiwan
3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, De Lin Institute of Technology, Taipei 236, Taiwan
4Department of Physics, and Center for Nanostorage Research, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan

Abstract

Nano-scale FePtCr-SiN thin films were fabricated on natural-oxidized silicon wafer. Thickness of the films was kept at 10 nm in order to examine the possibility for applying in high-density magnetic recording media. The as-deposited film was annealed in vacuum at various temperatures to obtain hard magnetic fcty1-FePt phase (L10 phase). Increasing SiN content in the film postponed the initial temperature required for obtaining high coercivity. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation indicated that the FePtCr particles were dispersed in non-magnetic SiN matrix. The average grain size of the magnetic particles was decreased as Cr content of the film was increased. Average grain size of the [(FePt)90Cr10]85-[SiNx]15 film is about 9.5 nm and its in-plane coercivity was about 3.7 kOe.

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