Ion beam induced structural modifications in nano-crystalline permalloy thin films

In the last years, there is a rise of interest in investigation and fabrication of nanometer sized magnetic structures due to their various applications (e.g. for data storage or micro sensors). Over the last several decades ion beam implantation became an important tool for the modification of materials and in particular for the manipulation of magnetic properties. Nanopatterning and implantation can be done simultaneously using focused-ion beam (FIB) techniques. FIB implantation and standard ion implantation differ in their beam current densities by 7 orders of magnitude. This difference can strongly influence the structural and magnetic properties, e.g. due to a rise of the local temperature in the sample during ion implantation.

In previous investigations both types of implantation techniques were studied separately. The aim of the current research was to compare both implantation techniques in terms of structural changes and changes in magnetic properties using the same material system. Moreover, to separate any possible annealing effects from implantation ones, the influence of temperature on the structural and magnetic properties were additionally investigated.

For the current study a model material system which is widely used for industrial applications was chosen: a 50 nm thick non-ordered nano-crystalline permalloy (Ni81Fe19) film grown on a SiO2 buffer layer based onto a (100)-oriented Si substrate. The permalloy films were implanted with a 30 keV Ga+ ion beam; and also a series of as-deposited permalloy films were annealed in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber.

Several investigation techniques were applied to study the film structure and composition, and were mostly based on non-destructive X-ray investigation techniques, which are the primary focus of this work. Besides X-ray diffraction (XRD), providing the long-range order crystal structural information, extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements to probe the local structure were performed. Moreover, the film thickness, surface roughness, and interface roughness were obtained from the X-ray reflectivity (XRR) measurements. Additionally cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (XTEM) imaging was used for local structural characterizations. The Ga depth distribution of the samples implanted with a standard ion implanter was measured by the use of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and Rutherford backscattering (RBS), and was compared with theoretical TRIDYN calculation. The magnetic properties were characterized via polar magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements at room temperature.

It was shown that both implantation techniques lead to a further material crystallization of the partially amorphous permalloy material (i.e. to an increase of the amount of the crystalline material), to a crystallite growth and to a material texturing towards the (111) direction. For low ion fluences a strong increase of the amount of the crystalline material was observed, while for high ion fluences this rise is much weaker. At low ion fluences XTEM images show small isolated crystallites, while for high ones the crystallites start to grow through the entire film. The EXAFS analysis shows that both Ni and Ga atom surroundings have a perfect near-order coordination corresponding to an fcc symmetry. The lattice parameter for both implantation techniques increases with increasing ion fluence according to the same linear law. The lattice parameters obtained from the EXAFS measurements for both implantation types are in a good agreement with the results obtained from the XRD measurements. Grazing incidence XRD (GIXRD) measurements of the samples implanted with a standard ion implanter show an increasing value of microstrain with increasing ion fluence (i.e. the lattice parameter variation is increasing with fluence). Both types of implantation result in an increase of the surface and the interface roughness and demonstrate a decrease of the saturation polarization with increasing ion fluence.

From the obtained results it follows that FIB and standard ion implantation influence structure and magnetic properties in a similar way: both lead to a material crystallization, crystallite growth, texturing and decrease of the saturation polarization with increasing ion fluence. A further crystallization of the highly defective nano-crystalline material can be simply understood as a result of exchange processes induced by the energy transferred to the system during the ion implantation. The decrease of the saturation polarization of the implanted samples is mainly attributed to the simple presence of the Ga atoms on the lattice sites of the permalloy film itself.

For the annealed samples more complex results were found. The corresponding results can be separated into two temperature regimes: into low (<400 C) and high (>400 C) temperatures. Similar to the implanted samples, annealing results in a material crystallization with large crystallites growing through the entire film and in a material texturing towards the (111) direction. The EXAFS analysis shows a perfect near-order coordination corresponding to an fcc symmetry. The lattice parameter of the annealed samples slightly decreases at low annealing temperatures, reaches its minimum at about ~400 C and slightly rises at higher ones. From the GIXRD measurements it can be observed that the permalloy material at temperatures above >400 C reaches it's strain-free state. On the other hand, the film roughness increases with increasing annealing temperature and a de-wetting of the film is observed at high annealing temperatures. Regardless of the material crystallization and texturing, the samples annealed at low temperatures demonstrate no change in saturation polarization, while at high temperatures a rise by approximately ~15% at 800 C was observed. The rise of the saturation polarization at high annealing temperatures is attributed to the de-wetting effect.