CoZrNb amorphous thin films deposited by r.f. diode and d.c. triode sputtering: a comparative study

The effects of the particular sputtering method on the structural and magnetic properties of amorphous CoNbZr thin films deposited by d.c. triode and r.f. diode sputtering are reported. A comparison has been made of the two kinds of films in terms of their local structures, stability, crystallization process and a number of magnetic characteristics. The structural investigations which are performed via the transmission electron diffraction pattern and by transmission electron micrographs showed that the local topological and chemical disorder is larger in triode sputtered films than in r.f. diode deposited ones. This result is related to the composition fluctuation in the first kind of film. Consequently, the structural relaxation and the crystallization process are also different in the two types of layer. At intermediate annealing temperatures one observes the formation of a higher chemical order in triode sputtered films. The difference in the structure does not affect the main characteristics of the B-H loops which are the same in the two sets of samples, but it does affect the characteristics of the ferromagnetic resonance spectra.