Abstract
Integration of ferromagnetic materials with electronic components represents a key solution to the enhancement of high frequency characteristics for recent miniaturized communication devices. In this study, Al element was introduced into FeCo binary alloy to form a ternary FeCoAl magnetic thin film by cosputtering technique followed by annealing in the presence of an external magnetic field. X-ray diffraction results revealed that the FeCoAl films exhibited a solid solution microstructure of FeCo matrix with Al as the solute element. The saturation magnetization (M s ) of FeCoAl thin film still maintained a high value around 1780 emu/cm 3 . It was found that the FeCoAl system possessed a high permeability around 1000 and an uni-axial anisotropic field (H k ) of 50 Oe. In addition, with the incorporation of Al element, the resonance frequency of the FeCoAl film reached 2.1 GHz. Hence, it is suggested that the FeCoAl magnetic thin film is a potential candidate for high frequency devices operated in GHz bands. © 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.