The preparation of permalloy 80/20 thin films using a pulsed DC discharge in a hollow cathode

Permalloy thin films have many applications as sensors and actuators but the preparation of magnetic films by magnetron sputtering is problematic since the target material reduces or changes the magnetic configuration of the magnetron. Hollow cathode discharges can produce similar or greater plasma densities to that found in magnetron sputtering and can therefore be operated over a similar pressure range. Pulsed DC sputtering has been seen to have some advantages compared to DC or RF sputtering. In this paper we report the use of a combination of pulsed DC sputtering with a hollow cathode system to prepare thin films of Permalloy. The deposition rate was found to strongly depend on the gas flow used to prepare the thin films. Combinations of the experimental conditions were found to produce films with a (111) preferential crystal orientation and that the grain size of the crystals was mainly determined by the deposition rate. Furthermore, changes in the degree of ion bombardment did not appear to have any significant affect on the structure of the deposit. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.