Surface oxidation of Permalloy thin films
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado 80303 (United States)
The chemical and magnetic structures of oxides on the surface of Permalloy Ni{sub 81}Fe{sub 19} films were investigated as functions of annealing time with x-ray and polarized neutron reflectometry. For annealing times of less than one hour, the oxide consisted of a 1.5-nm-thick layer of NiO on an Fe oxide layer that was in contact with Permalloy. The Fe oxide thickness increases with annealing time with a parabolic rate constant of 10{sup -18} cm{sup 2} s{sup -1} (for an annealing temperature of 373 K). The growth of the oxide layer is limited by the rate at which oxygen appears below the NiO layer. No portion of the oxide region was found to be ferromagnetically ordered for films annealed less than one hour. The growth of the Fe oxide region is well correlated with the measured increase of the second-order magnetic susceptibility for similarly prepared samples.
- OSTI ID:
- 20787820
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 73, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.73.014420; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1098-0121
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Unidirectionally biased Permalloy: A polarized-neutron-reflection experiment
Thickness-Dependent Thermal Oxidation of Ni into NiO Thin Films