Ion Beam Mixing of Multelayered Co-B Thin Films

Abstract

ABSTRACTIon beam mixing (with 150 keV 1016 Ar ions/cm2) of multilayered Co-B films with various bilayer periods (BP = TCo + TB, TCo = 4 × TB), and layer thickness ratios, was studied to determine its utility, compared to sputtering, in producing morphological changes in amorphous thin films. All the ion beam mixed films were amorphous, but the morphologies of both the as-deposited and the ion beam mixed films varied with the BP. The in-plane, easy axis anisotropies of the films with the largest BP were obliterated by mixing, although their hard axis coercivities were unchanged. The anisotropy of the films with smaller BPs was increased by mixing. The results indicate that ion beam mixing is a potentially useful method of improving the properties of soft magnetic thin films.