Effect of thermal treatment on interface structure and magnetic properties of PtMnSb/Si multilayered thin films fabricated by solid-state reaction

[PtMnSb15nm/Si10nm]*7 ferromagnet/semiconductor multilayered films were synthesized by solid-state reaction of [(Pt0.69nm/Mn0.44nm/Sb0.37nm)*10/Si10 nm]*7 elemental multilayers. Two different thermal treatments, i.e. the post-annealing and the simultaneous annealing (substrate heating during deposition) were employed to control the interdiffusion and the compound phase formation. Structural characterizations revealed that these films were composed of the PtMnSb, amorphous Si and interdiffusion layers. Moreover, the films produced by simultaneous annealing had the relatively thick interdiffusion layers rather than the films by the post-annealing. According to the magnetization measurements, we obtained the larger value of saturation magnetization for the simultaneous annealed film rather than that for the post-annealed one. We will discuss the structural and magnetic properties of the samples in conjunction with the extent of the interdiffusion as well as the crystallinity of the magnetic compound.