The relationship between magnetic softness and the precipitation process of highly resistive soft magnetic TM-M-X [TM: Fe, Co, M: Metal, X: O, N] films was investigated.The as-sputtered and incompletely phase-separated state of Fe-Al-O, Fe-Sm-O, and Fe-V-O films show magnetic softness. This soft magnetic property is attributed to the exchange coupling of neighboring magnetic crystals through the intergranular phase. However, Fe-B-N and Co-Sm-O films show perpendicular anisotropy over the whole annealing temperature range, because it is easy to separate TM-X and M-X owing to their extremely high diffusion rate and the large difference between their Gibbs free energies (−Δ
G°
diff). These results indicate that the small diffusion coefficient of M and X in TM (
D), the large critical radii of crystal nucleation of M-X compounds (
r*), the high melting points of M-X compounds (
Tm) and the large −Δ
G°
diff. are essential factors in the formation of stable hetero-granular structures with both magnetic softness and high resistivity.
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