High-density Fe cluster-assembled films were produced at room temperature by an energetic cluster deposition. Though cluster-assemblies are usually sooty and porous, the present Fe cluster-assembled films are lustrous and dense, revealing a soft magnetic behavior. Size-monodispersed Fe clusters with the mean cluster size d=9 nm were synthesized using a plasma-gas-condensation technique. Ionized clusters are accelerated electrically and deposited onto the substrate together with neutral clusters from the same cluster source. Packing fraction and saturation magnetic flux density increase rapidly and magnetic coercivity decreases remarkably with increasing acceleration voltage. The Fe cluster-assembled film obtained at the acceleration voltage of -20 kV has a packing fraction of 0.86+/-0.03, saturation magnetic flux density of 1.78+/-0.05 Wb/m(2), and coercivity value smaller than 80 A/m. The resistivity at room temperature is ten times larger than that of bulk Fe metal. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.
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