Effects of organic additive saccharin on the magnetic properties of CoMnP thin films

Abstract

Electrodeposition technique provides an easy way to produce magnetic thin films. Magnetic thin films are extensively used in various magnetic induction writing heads, magnetic MEMS devices and other magnetic sensing devices. Thus we have synthesized CoMnP thin films from aqueous bath with organic additive saccharin using electrochemical deposition technique and examined its magnetic properties. The electrochemical deposition method is especially interesting due to its low cost, high throughput and high quality of deposit. The CoMnP alloys were electrodeposited galvanostatically for various composition of the bath solution and for various concentration of the additive saccharin. The effects of electrodeposition condition and organic additive saccharin on the magnetic properties of CoMnP thin films were investigated. Structure and the Morphology of the film were studied using X-Ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Elemental compositions of the film were studied using energy dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS). Magnetic properties of the deposited films were studied using Vibrating sample Magnetometer (VSM). SEM measurement indicated that the surface morphology was affected by the nature of the organic additives to a large extent. CoMnP films formed under optimized conditions are found to be polycrystalline in nature with hcp structure. Moreover, it was obvious that the presence of organic additive saccharin, in the electroplating bath, modified the magnetic properties of the CoMnP thin films according to the VSM measurements.