• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.314-319
• /
• 1993

The Effects of additional element X (X = Si, Mo, Cu, Gd) on magnetic properties and microstructure of Co-1Zat%Cr-Zat%Ta/Cr-X magnetic thin film were investigated. The thickness changes of Cr-X underlayer and CoCrTa magnetic layer were in the range of $1000~2000\AA$ and $200~800\AA$. respectively. Substrate temperatures were controlled from $100^{\circ}C$ to $200^{\circ}C$. Increase of coercivity by about 100~200 Oe was observed in CoCrTa/Cr-X thin films compared to those without additional X element. Cu was the most effective additional element for increasing coercivity. CoCrTa/Cr-Cu thin film shows relatively high coercivity in $1500\AA$ underlayer thickness and $600\AA$ magnetic layer thickness.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.91-96
• /
• 2003

Cross-geometrical Cr/Co/Al-Ox/Co/Ni-Fe tunnel junctions were fabricated by magnetron sputtering. To form an insulating layer, The Al layer was oxidized in an atmosphere of oxygen-argon mixture at low power after deposition. To enhance the coercivity of the bottom Co layer, The Cr seed layer was deposited on the glass and it led to increase in coercivity. The coercivity increase is due to the increase of roughness through the Cr thickness. In over oxidation time, the oxidation of Co bottom layer and flat interface of insulator can increase the bottom Co coercivity. But TMR ratio gradually decrease. TMR ratio is relevant with Cr thickness, insulator thickness, and oxidation time. The maximum TMR ratio was 14% at room temperature and the TMR ratio was decreased to half at 0.51 V.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.203-209
• /
• 1999

Effects of Mo and Si addition in Cr underlayer on magnetic properties of CoCrTa/CrMo and CoCrTa/Si thin films media were investigated. Thin films were prepared with DC magnetron sputtering system. The thickness of CoCrTa magnetic layer and Cr underlayer were fixed at 300 $\AA$ and 700 $\AA$, respectively. The substrate heating temperature was kept constant at 26$0^{\circ}C$ for both magnetic layer and underlayer preparation. The coercivity increase of CoCrTa film was realized due to Mo addition in Cr underlayer. Si addition made a small decrease in coercivity. Coercivity increase seems to be attributed by the improvement of preferred orientation of Cr(200) plane. It is found that lattice fit between Cr(200) and CoCrTa(1120) of CrMo underlayer is better than that of CrSi underlayer. This small misfit may also contribute coercivity increase.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.94-98
• /
• 2002

Sputtering conditions and various underlayer such as Al, Cu, Ni, Cr, Ag, Mg, Fe, Co, Pd, Au, Pt, Mo and Hf were investigated for coercivity enhancement of 20 nm Ti/CoCrPt thin films in order to increase the coercivity of the films thinner than 20 nm. Among them, Ag and Mg were effective to increase the coercivity. Particularly 2 nm Ag was very effective to increase the coercivity and nucleation field as well as to reduce ${\alpha}$ value in CoCrPt thin film such that the coercivity of 2 nm Ag/18 nm Ti/10 nm CoCrPt film was 2200 Oe. However, it seemed that other coercivity enhancement mechanism operated in CoCrPt films because Ti (002) preferred texture was not developed with Ag underlayer contrary to a general expectation. And the coercivity and nucleation field were decreased when glass substrate with rougher surface was used.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.215-220
• /
• 1993

Microstructural dependence of magnetic property of RF/DC sputtered $Co_{69.0}Ni_{18.5}Cr_{12.5}/Cr$ double layer thin film was studied. Grain size was found to be decreased with substrate temperature in the range of $100-200^{\circ}C$ and Cr underlayer thickness(from $500\;{\AA}-2000\;{\AA}$). The peaks (200) and (1120) of X-ray diffraction patterns were evidently grown with the substrate temperature for the Cr underlayer and magnetic layer, respectively. The CoNiCr magnetic layer was found to be well epitaxialy grown on Cr underlayer, and subsequently the coercivity was enhanced.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.205-211
• /
• 1997

The magnetic properties change which was induced by addition of small amount of Ni into Cr underlayer in CoCrTa/ CrNi thin film deposited by electron beam evaporator was investigated. The additional Ni element was found to be beneficial for incease in the coercivity of the thin film deposited at the room temperature. The origin of coercivity increase was elucidated by crystal orientation and microstructure investigation using XRD and AFM respectively. It was found that the grain size were increased by Ni addition. The coercivity of the film with CrNi underlayer is lower than that of film with Cr underlayer when prepared with higher substrate temperature. This result may be originated with the increase in grain size. When film was deposited at 280 $^{\circ}C$ substrate temperature, Cr segregation in grain boundary is found to be the other factor for determining coercivity value.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.256-262
• /
• 1999

Sputter deposited CoCr(Mo)/Si film were studied with emphasis on the correlation between magnetic properties and crystallographic orientation. The perpendicular coercivities of CoCr films decreased with Si underlayer thickness, whereas those of CoCrMo films increased with Si underlayer thickness. It has been explained that additions of the larger atomic radius Mo atoms in CoCr films impedes crystal growth resulting in a decrease in grain size, thus this small grain size may induce high perpendicular coercivity. The c-axis alignment of CoCrMo film was improved due to addition of 2at.%Mo. It means CoCrMo layer grow self-epitaxial directly from orientation and structure of Si underlayer when the main layer grow on underlayer.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.69-75
• /
• 1997

Thin films of $Si0_2(1000{\AA})/CoNiCr(400{\AA})/Cr$ were fabricated as a function of Cr thickness by KF magnetron sputtering. The saturation magnetization, coercive force and squareness with annealing temperature for these films were investigated. The values of saturation magnetization of $SiO_2/CoNiCr/Cr$ thin films decreased as the thickness of Cr underlayer increased, whereas coercive force increased as the thickness of Cr underlayer increased. The value of Ms was 600 emu/cc and the maximum value of Hc was 550 Oe. Especially, the value of saturation magnetization was rapidly decreased $SiO_2/CoNiCr/Cr(1700{\AA})$ thin films as the annealing temperature increased And the coercive force increased as the annealing temperature increased When annealing temperature was $650^{\circ}C$, the Ms was reduced to 90 % of the as-deposited film. And the Hc was showed maximum 1600 Oe. It was thought that Cr diffusion into CoNiCr layer reduced the magnetic moment of CoKiCr layer. In addition. Hc might he increased due to grain growth perpendicular to the film plane.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.320-324
• /
• 1993

The effect of sputtering conditions on magnetic properties of CoCrMo/Cr magnetic thin film was investigated. Substrate temperature were controlled from R. T to $250^{\circ}C$. The thickness changes of Cr underlayer and CoCrMo magnetic layer were in the range of $1000-2500\AA$ and $300-800\AA$, respectively. Grain size was found to be decreased with increasing magnetic layer thickness(from $500\AA$ to $800\AA$). CoCrMo magnetic layer microstructure showed relatively small dependence on Cr underlayer thickness, substrate temperature. Coercivity increased with increasing Cr underlayer, magnetic layer thickness and substrate temperature. CoCrMo/Cr thin film showed a coercivity of 880 Oe in $700\AA$ magnetic layer thickness and $1000\AA$ Cr underalyer thickness.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.312-320
• /
• 1999

Effect of deposition conditions on the magnetic properties of SmCo/Cr prepared by a RF magnetron sputtering method was studied. We obtained the maximum coercivity of 3.2 kOe in the sample of Cr(50 nm)/SmCo(40 nm, 50W, 20 mT)/Cr(150 nm, 100 W, 30 mT). The coercivity of the SmCo/Cr depends largely on the roughness of the Cr underlayer and the composition of SmCo. The roughness of the Cr underlayer increased with increasing the Ar pressure and thickness, and promoted the isolation of SmCo grains which resulted in an enhanced coercivity. The composition of the SmCo was changed with RF power and Ar pressure due to the mass difference between Sm and Co and the resputtering phenomena. The maximum coercivity was obtained in the composition of about 20 at.% Sm. The mechanism of magnetization reversal of the present SmCo films changed from domain wall motion to domain rotation as the RF power and the Ar pressure increase. This was though to be due to the defects, such as the roughness of Cr surface, porous column boundaries etc., which inhibit domain wall movement.