Influences of sputtering gas pressure on microtexture and crystallographic characteristics of Ba-ferrite thin films for high density recording media

Ba-ferrite films with small c-axis dispersion angle Δθ50are suitable for ultrahigh density recording media. The dependences of partial oxygen gas pressure PO2and total discharge gas pressure PTotalon the characteristics of Ba-ferrite films were clarified. It was found that there were three regions, where films were composed of single layer of spinel type ferrite(PO2≤0.002mTorr), mixed layer of spinel and magnetoplumbite type ferrites (0.003 ≤ PO2 ≤ 0.2mTorr) and single layer of magnetoplumbite type ferrite (PO2>0.3 mTorr). In the range of P02between 0.005 and 0.2 mTorr, spinel-like ferrite layer plays very important role as an underlayer to decrease the Δθ50of the Ba-ferrite layer. Films deposited at relatively low PO2and PTotalexhibit very smooth surface and Δθ50as small as2.5~3.5.