Abstract
High saturation magnetization films with soft magnetic properties are invest igated Fe, Fe-Ni and Fe-Si with thickness of 500-3000 A were deposited on GaAs single-crystal substrates. The substrates have their <111> axes oriented vertical to their plane. Tbe lattice parameters of the films are very close to the half of that of GaAs. This fitting makes the films grow with a single-crystal structure with (111) orientation. Since the effective crystalline anisotropy field in the (111) plane for bcc Fe is very weak, magnetic softness of those films are well enhanced when the X-ray diffraction data indicate good orientation of the (111) plane. Good orientation of the (111) plane is achieved when the substrate temperature is above 250°C. Hawever, atomic diffusion at the interface between the films and the substrates occurs during deposition This made it difficult to refine the deposition conditions for improving the quality of the crystals and heat treatments for adjusting the induced uniaxial anisotropy to improve the magnetic softness. Isotropic initial permeability which is expected theoretically for ideal single-crystal films were partly obtained for those films, indicating that production of films with isotropic permeability is possible if the induced uniaxial anisotropy is removed.
