Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 February 2012
This paper presents a nondestructive measurement technique for the determination of the film thicknesses of Co and SmCo based magnetic films deposited by sputtering on single-crystal silicon (100) substrates. X-ray diffraction of Cu Kα radiation has been used to measure the intensity of the (400) reflection from bare silicon substrates and as attenuated by sputter coated Co and SmCo based films on Si substrates. A four-axis research diffractometer allowed the substrate orientation to be fine adjusted to maximize the (400) diffraction intensity. The thickness of SmCo based films was in a range from 0.05 to 5 μm. Co film thicknesses on Si could be measured to a few tens of nanometers. The accuracy of the thickness measurements depends on the effective mass attenuation coefficient of the film material. For the materials considered, the thicknesses determined by the X-ray attenuation method agree within at least several percent to values determined by other methods.