The effect of nitrogen on soft magnetism in FeTaN films

An attempt has been made to understand and explain the relationship between soft magnetism and nitrogen content in single layer FeTaN films deposited by dc magnetron sputtering. The effect of nitrogen content on film microstructure, crystallite size, saturation magnetization, magnetostriction, and coercivity is analyzed. Clear trends emerge from this analysis. A linear relationship exists between nitrogen content and all the properties mentioned above with the exception of coercivity. The coercivity is observed to decrease suddenly on the addition of nitrogen, then remain flat over a large range of nitrogen contents, finally increasing rapidly at high nitrogen contents. Permeability and anisotropy field measurements are also reported.