Effects of Film Thickness and Annealing Temperature on the Stress in Amorphous Gd-Fe Alloy Thin Films

Abstract

ABSTRACTGd-Fe films were deposited by magnetron sputtering on glass substrates. The results shoved that the stress is compressive in most cases, and a larger compressive stress exists at the film-substrate interface. The stress is independent on the film thickness when the film thickness is greater than 0.20 μm. The stress becomes tensile only when the annealing temperature attains 400ºC. Therefore, the interfacial stress and the growth stress coexist in the Gd-Fe films, and the former will not be dominant when the film thickness is greater than 0. 2μm. The interfacial stress may originate from the inhomogeneous distribution of film composition at the interface, and the origin of growth stress can be explained by the atomic peening effect. The relation between the stress and the annealing temperature can be comprehended with the amorphous structure model.