Soft High Saturation Magnetization (Fe0:7Co0:3)1 xNx Thin Films For Inductive Write Heads

(Fe0 7Co0 3)1 N (or FeCoN) alloy single layers and FeCoN film sandwiched between two very thin (5 nm) permalloy layers have been synthesized by RF diode sputtering. The saturation magnetization of the as-deposited FeCoN single layers was found to be around 24.5 kG, the same as the pure Fe0 7Co0 3 alloy; and the minimum hard-axis coercivity was 5 Oe. In contrast, the sandwiched FeCoN films have a hard axis coercivity of 0.6 Oe, an excellent in-plane uniaxial anisotropy with an anisotropy field of 20 Oe. The optimized FeCoN films exhibit a BCC structure with a strong 110 fiber texture and the resistivity is 55 cm. The combination of high saturation and low coercivity, makes the FeCoN films a very promising candidate for the write head materials for future magnetic recording.