Influence of the substrate stiffness on the crystallization process of sputtered TbFe_2 thin films

摘要

Despite the giant magnetostriction of TbFe_2, this material has a very limited popularity in real applications, due to the difficulties for obtaining the Laves phase on thin films. Here we report on the properties of annealed TbFe_2 films deposited by sputtering on different substrates and with different buffer materials. We find that the presence of the highly magnetostrictive Laves phase is not necessarily related to crystallinity of the substrate. Strikingly we find a correlation between the degree of TbFe_2 crystallization and the rigidity of the substrate or the buffer layer underneath the TbFe_2. This opens the possibility of easy manufacturing of devices based on TbFe_2 layers.