R&D: Microstructure of Oblique Incidence CoNi Thin Films

Journal of Applied Physics has published an article written by H.‐M. Ho; G. Thomas; Department of Materials Science & Mineral Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA, and J.‐S. Gau, Control Data Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55435, USA.

Abstract: “Because of its application as recording media for high‐density recording, oblique incidence thin films have been studied by many investigators. It is well known that oblique incidence thin films have a columnar structure, however, localized microstructural information, i.e., obtained directly from individual columns, has not yet been reported. In this study, the microstructure of CoNi oblique incidence thin films have been examined by transmission electron microscopy and microdiffraction technique. Results of thin films prepared with various incident angles indicate that the columns in oblique incidence thin films are single crystals and the c axis of the columns does not necessarily coincide with the column axis. These results and results of the effect of incident angle on column alignment and on the c‐axis texture will be presented in this paper.“