High frequency characteristics of FeCoAlO thin films fabricated with asymmetric target at different Ar gas flow rates

FeCoAlO thin films with good soft magnetic properties were fabricated by using RF magnetron sputtering. In order to obtain good high-frequency performance, the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy was tuned by combining the effects of in situ magnetic field and the gradient of Al-O concentration. The composition gradient was controlled by using an asymmetric target and different Ar gas flow rates changing from 5 sccm to 17.5 sccm. It was found that at the range of Ar gas flow rate from 7.5 sccm to 15 sccm, the films showed an excellent high-frequency performance: the resonance frequency was beyond 3.0 GHz and the real permeability μ′ had a high value of ∼200 at low-frequency side. In particular, the film prepared at the Ar gas flow rate of 15 sccm showed a resonance frequency of 4.0 GHz. Large resonance frequency can be attributed to the high in-plane uniaxial anisotropy field which was induced by stress and the external magnetic field. The high values of permeability and resonance frequency enable the FeCoAlO thin films to be one of the important candidates for microwave applications.