Crystallization and atomic diffusion behavior of high coercive Ta/Nd–Fe–B/Ta-based permanent magnetic thin film

A high coercivity of about 20.4 kOe was obtained through post-annealing the sputtered Ta/Nd–Fe–B/Ta-based permanent magnetic thin films. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses were performed to investigate the crystallization and atomic diffusion behaviors during post-annealing. The results show that the buffer and capping Ta layers prefered to intermix with Fe and B atoms, and Nd tends to be combined with O atoms. The preferred atomic combination caused the appearance of the soft magnetic phase of Fe–Ta–B, resulting in a kink of the second quadratic magnetic hysteresis loop. The preferred atomic diffusion and phase formation of the thin films were well explained in terms of the formation enthalpy of the various compounds.