Study of magnetic thin films deposited by closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputtering

Closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputtering, developed by TEER Coatings Ltd., uses a novel plasma confinement system, which allows controllable high-rate deposition from a wide range of target materials. We report the first use of this technique using ferromagnetic target materials to grow films of nanometer thickness. A study was carried out on a series of Py/Cu/Py and Py/Au/Py magnetic multilayer films, with and without underlayers of Ti or Ta. High-resolution electron microscopy showed that 5 nm of Ti or 15 nm of Ta did not change the structure of the trilayers. The use of Au as a spacer layer induced a texture in the upper Py layer, which decreased its saturation field by half. In situ experiments to observe the effects of an applied field on the domain structure of the films were carried out using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy. Variations in the switching field of the Py layers and of the coupling strength between the Py layers were observed when the thicknesses of the three layers were varied. Double domain wall structures with different wall intensities were observed in some cases. The roughness of the interfaces were increased by ion bombardment; this increased the saturation field of the Py layers. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)45708-1].