XPS study of polycrystalline and epitaxial FeTaN films deposited by d.c. reactive magnetron sputtering

✍ Scribed by Yang, Dehua; Jiang, Hai; Ott, Ronald; Minor, Kevin; Grant, Jonathan; Varga, Lajos; Barnard, John A.; Doyle, William D.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 249 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0142-2421
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9918(199904)27:4<259::aid-sia560>3.0.co;2-n

✦ Synopsis

Thin Ðlms of FeTaN have been investigated as potential head materials for several years. However, little information related to its chemical characteristics can be found in the literature, therefore polycrystalline and epitaxial FeTaN Ðlms were synthesized by d.c. reactive magnetron sputtering. Follow-up annealing was performed on some of the thin Ðlms under vacuum conditions. The chemical compositions and elemental chemical states of both kinds of thin Ðlms were investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is shown that the nitrogen content in the Ðlms can be changed and easily controlled by varying the nitrogen gas Ñow rates during the deposition process. There are no large chemical shifts in the binding energies of Ta 4f, Fe 2p and N 1s between polycrystalline and epitaxial Ðlms. No chemical compounds among Fe, Ta and N were formed in as-deposited or even in vacuumannealed thin Ðlms. However, a chemical shift of Ta 4f from its atomic state was found. In addition, relatively large contents of carbon and oxygen inside the Ðlms were noticed. The existing chemical states, sources and possible e †ects of nitrogen, carbon and oxygen on the magnetic properties were studied and discussed.