Effect of Annealing on the Structural, Magnetic and Surface Energy of CoFeBY Films on Si (100) Substrate

The structure, magnetic properties, optical properties and adhesion efficiency of CoFeBY films were studied. Co(40)Fe(40)B(10)Y(10) alloy was sputtered onto Si (100) with a thickness of 10–50 nm, and then annealed at room temperature, 100 °C, 200 °C and 300 °C for 1 h. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the CoFeBY films deposited at room temperature are amorphous. Annealing at 100 °C gave the films enough thermal energy to change the structure from amorphous to crystalline. After annealing, the CoFeBY thin film showed a body-centered cubic (BCC) CoFeB (110) characteristic peak at 44°. However, the low-frequency alternative-current magnetic susceptibility (χ(ac)) and saturation magnetization (M(S)) increased with the increase of thickness. CoFeBY thin films had the highest χ(ac) and M(S) after annealing at 300 °C compared to that at other temperatures. After annealing at 300 °C, the surface energy of CoFeBY film is the maximum at 50 nm. Higher surface energy indicated stronger adhesion.