Physical and electro-chemical properties of high rate ion-beam sputtered Fe films

Magnetic properties, resistivity, hardness, and corrosion resistance of nitrogen-doped iron films deposited using an ion-beam sputter system are reported. It was found that longer ion source idling time and higher nitrogen doping generates films with lower coercivities, lower anisotropy fields, and finer grain size for nitrogen concentration less than 3 at.%. The nitrogen in the films is chemically bonded to iron with photoelectron binding energy of 397.2 eV. For nitrogen concentrations >or=5 at.%, near-zero saturation magnetostriction, fine grain size, high saturation magnetization, 60 mu Omega -cm resistivity, 20 GPa hardness, and corrosion resistance higher than that of NiFe were obtained.>