Effect of film thickness on the magneto-structural properties of ion beam sputtered transition metal–metalloid FeCoNbB/Si (100) alloy thin films

The structure and magnetic properties of ion beam sputtered transition metal–metalloid FeCoNbB/Si(100) alloy thin film have been studied as a function of film thickness using complementary techniques of x-ray reflectivity (XRR), grazing incidence x-ray diffraction, and magneto optical Kerr effect. Thicknesses of the films range from ∼200 to 1500 Å. The coercivity of all the films ranges between 4 and 14 Oe, which suggests soft magnetic nature of FeCoNbB/Si thin films. Films with thickness up to 800 Å are amorphous in nature and are found to possess uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in the film plane, although no magnetic field was applied during deposition. The presence of the two fold symmetry in such amorphous thin films may be attributed to quenched-in stresses developed during deposition. Upon increasing the film thickness to ∼1200 Å and above, the structure of FeCoNbB films transforms from amorphous to partially nanocrystalline structure and has bcc-FeCo nanocrystalline phase dispersed in remaining amorphous matrix. The crystalline volume fraction (cvf) of the films is found to be proportional to the film thickness. Azimuthal angle dependence of remanence confirms the presence of in-plane four-fold anisotropy (FFA) in the crystalline film with cvf ∼75%. Synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurement using area detector suggests random orientation of crystallites and thus clearly establishes that FFA is not related to texture/cubic symmetry in such polycrystalline thin films. As supported by asymmetric Bragg diffraction measurements, the origin of FFA in such partially crystalline thin film is ascribed to the additional compressive stresses developed in the film upon crystallization. Results indicate that promising soft magnetic properties in such films can be optimized by controlling the film thickness. The revelation of controllable and tunable anisotropy suggests that FeCoNbB thin films can have potential application in electromagnetic applications.