Effect of sputtering target's grain size on the sputtering yield, particle size and coercivity (Hc) of Ni and Ni20Al thin films

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering 2016-02, Vol.114 (1), p.12116-12121
• Main Authors: Reza, M, Sajuri, Z, Yunas, J, Syarif, J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Coercive force; Coercivity; Disk drives; Glass substrates; Grain size; Magnetic thin films; Nickel; Parameters; Particle size; Seeds; Signal to noise ratio; Sputtering; Thin films
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/114/1/012116

Researches on magnetic thin films concentrated mainly on optimizing the sputtering parameters to obtain the desired thin film's properties. However, the effect of the sputtering target's properties towards the thin film's properties is not well established. This study is focused on analysing the effect of sputtering target's grain size towards the sputtering yield, particle size and the magnetic coercivity (Hc) of thin film. Two sets of sputtering targets; pure Ni (magnetic) and Ni20Al (at.%) (non-magnetic) were prepared. Each target has 2 sets of samples with different grain sizes; (a) 30 to 50μm and (b) 80 to 100μm. Thin films from each target were sputtered onto glass substrates under fixed sputtering parameters. The initial results suggested that the sputtering target's grain size has significant effect on the thin film's sputtering yield, particle size and Hc. Sputtering target with smaller grain size has 12% (pure Ni) to 60% (Ni20Al) higher sputtering yield, which produces thin films with smaller particle size and larger Hc value. These initial findings provides a basis for further magnetic thin film research, particularly for the seed layer in hard disk drive (HDD) media, where seed layer with smaller particle size is essential in reducing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).