Magnetic thin films and multilayers for applications in microelectronics

 
Working group
 
 

Collaborations:

– Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, NCSR Demokritos, Athens 15310, Greece

– nM2-Lab, Institute of Structure of Matter, CNR, Monterotondo Scalo, Rome 00015, Italy

 

ResearchDescription:

 

Magnetoelectronics combines small-scale magnetic elements with conventional electronic devices to create systems with unprecedented properties and it represents an interesting research field in view of possible applications.

However, the realization of such devices implies the development of new materials and the modification of the current production processes concerning, mainly, the techniques of thin filmsdeposition. As far as materials are concerned, ferromagnetic films in the form of thin films are becoming increasingly important for the development of devices such as reading heads in high density recording systems, magnetic sensors and transducers. On the other hand, in the field of ferromagneticthin films or multilayers depositionon silicon substrates, the technique appearing very promising is the pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Compared to conventional thin films deposition techniques, PLD possesses the unique ability to preserve the stoichiometry of the compounds that are desired to be deposited, allowing, at the same time, to create high quality thin films even in the case of composite materials or complex stoichiometry. Moreover, in the field of magnetic films, the superiority of PLD has been demonstrated in producing ultrathin and multilayer films having improved magnetic properties compared to films deposited with conventional techniques.

The research involves the deposition, by PLD, and the microstructural characterization of magnetic multilayers to be used in high density recording systems. In particular, multilayers consisting of Fe, Co, FeNi, FeCo and FePt layersare studied. The microstructural characteristics of the deposited films are analysed by different structural characterization techniques and the results are correlated to their magnetic properties to optimize the deposition process and produce operating electronic devices.