Influence of stresses and magnetostriction on the soft magnetic behavior of metallic films

Nanocrystalline soft magnetic Fe–Zr–N films have been successfully deposited by DC magnetron reactive sputtering. For thick films (>200 nm), the compressive stress in the as-deposited films and the positive magnetostriction produce perpendicular anisotropy. The magnitude of this effect is smaller than the value obtained from the magnetic parameters indicating that in these films other sources of perpendicular anisotropy like columnar structure or texture play an important role. For thin films (<200 nm) with in-plane orientation of the magnetization, we have found a surprising difference between the magnitude of the induced uniaxial anisotropy in Fe–Zr–N and Fe–Co–Ta–N materials. This effect is not due to a difference in the magnitude of the magnetostriction or the strain. A possible explanation for the effect is a difference in the electronic configurations in the two materials.