Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik

MM 18: SYM Thin Film Magnetic Materials: Microstructure, Reaction and Magnetic Coupling I

MM 18.2: Talk

Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 10:45–11:00, H 0107

Nanoscale characterization of electroplated, thick permalloy films — •Michael R. Koblischka¹, Saleh Getlawi¹, Martin Theis², Anjela Koblischka-Veneva³, Monika Saumer², and Uwe Hartmann¹ — ¹Institute of Experimental Physics, Saarland University, P.O.Box 151150, D-66041 Saarbrücken, Germany — ²Department of Microsystems Technology, University of Applied Sciences, Campus Zweibrücken, Amerikastrasse 1, D-66482 Zweibrücken, Germany — ³Institute of Functional Materials, Saarland University, P.O.Box 151150, D-66041 Saarbrücken, Germany

Permalloy (Py) samples were fabricated by means of electroplating, (1) a patterned Py film on a Si wafer and (2) a NiFe foil. The grain sizes of the samples were measured employing AFM and TEM to be of the order of 50 nm (type (1)) and around 200 nm (type (2)). TEM further reveals that along the substrate, larger elongated grains are located, and after this layer, the regular grain growth sets in. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was employed to obtain Kikuchi patterns of Py which can be unambiguously identified due to the thickness of the samples, and via them the individual crystallographic orientation of the grains. The samples required a mechanical polishing procedure down to 40 nm colloidal silica particles, yielding a smooth surface with a roughness of nm dimensions. With the recently achieved high spatial resolution of the EBSD technique, the individual grain orientations in such samples can be determined for the first time. The EBSD results reveal a fibre-texture of the electroplated Py.

The EBSD work is supported by the DFG (Mu959/19).