Ion beam induced sputtered multilayered magnetic structures

摘要

An ion beam sputter deposition system and method for the fabrication of multilayered thin film structures is described. Selected combinations of ion beam gases and energies matched to the selected target materials optimize the physical, magnetic and electrical properties of the deposited thin film layers. Matching the ion beam gas atomic mass to the target material atomic mass provides thin metal films having densities and resistivities very close to their bulk property values. Utilizing low ion beam energies in combination with high-mass ion beam gases results in the deposited thin films having low internal stress. The ratio of the ion beam gas mass to the target material mass is shown to be the determining factor for achieving the desired thin film properties in the described ion beam sputtering system. Both the mass of the ion beam sputtering gas and the energy of the ion beam is controlled as a function of the target material to provide single-layered and multilayered structures wherein selected properties of each layer are optimized to provide a specific function for each layer in the resulting structure.