Abstract
We have prepared magnetic thin films of FeSiB by sputtering and examined microstructure and magnetic properties of the annealed films in order to investigate the feasibility of the films to microsensor application. Effects of vacuum annealing on the magnetic properties of $Fe_{84}$$Si_{6}$$B_{10}$ films have been examined as a function of temperature. The heating rate and the holding time were 10 K/min and 1 hour, respectively. Vacuum condition was held during cooling to prevent oxidation of the films. The coercivity did not show any noticeable change (~1500 A/m), although the grain size of the crystalline phase in the annealed films increased gradually up to about 16 nm until 673 K. However, both the grain size and the coercivity increased steeply when the annealing temperature increased over 723 K. Since the saturation magnetization is closely related to the phase evolution, the variation of the saturation magnetization of the annealed films was similar to that of the ribbon materials; the thin films were transformed from amorphous to crystalline with $\alpha$-(Fe,Si) phase by increasing annealing temperature.
