AVS 46th International Symposium
    Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Technical Group Thursday Sessions
       Session MI+NS-ThM

Paper MI+NS-ThM4
Periodic Magnetic Microstructures using Glancing Angle Deposition

Thursday, October 28, 1999, 9:20 am, Room 618/619

Session: Patterned or Self-Assembled Magnetic Nanostructures
Presenter: B. Dick, University of Alberta, Canada
Authors: B. Dick, University of Alberta, Canada
M.J. Brett, University of Alberta, Canada
M. Malac, University of Alberta, Canada
R.F. Egerton, University of Alberta, Canada
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Arrays of magnetic pillars have been proposed as a potential high-density data storage medium.@footnote 1@ The advanced deposition technique known as GLancing Angle Deposition (GLAD)@footnote 2@ has been used to fabricate Ni and Co posts. Because of the nature of initial film nucleation, these posts were distributed randomly on the substrate surface with a large-scale periodicity of around 350nm and individual post diameters of 100 to 150nm. We have grown arrays of posts by suppressing the randomness inherent within the initial nucletion stage of film growth. Shadowing sites were fabricated by pre-patterning a thin Cr or Ti layer on silicon substrates into a square array using electron beam lithography. These sites shadow regions of the substrate from incident flux during film deposition and act as preferred nucleation sites for the Ni and Co pillars. Using this process, we have obtained a regular post period of 500nm, with post diameters and heights of 300nm and 375nm respectively. This presentation will describe the GLAD deposition process, report on the film's periodic structure, and characterise the film's domain structure (MFM) and hysteresis response curve. Further development on decreasing the period between individual posts is continuing, and we exptect that 200nm spacing should be attainable using this simple, single-step evaporation process. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@S.Y. Chou. Proceedings of the IEEE. 85(4), 1997. @footnote 2@K. Robbie, J.C. Sit, M.J. Brett. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B. 16(3), 1998.