Patterning of magnetron sputtered SmCo thin films by excimer laser ablation

This paper presents the results of our investigations on excimer laser micromachining of SmCo thin films. These films were prepared onto silicon substrate with a SiO2 layer and chromium film on the top. The ablation characteristics of the films were analysed by examining the surface topography using optical microscopy and Scanning Electron Spectroscopy (SEM). The quality of the etched patterns was evaluated in terms of sharpness of the edges, side wall profile and ratio of pattern mask size to feature size. The etch characteristics were studied over a wide range of laser parameters with the fluence in the range 0.25 J/cm2 and 1.6 J/cm2 and the number of shots varied from 1 to 50. The results showed that the precise nature of the resulting structure is a strong function of fluence and number of shots. These studies provide insight into the ablation behaviour of SmCo films and their potential applications in MEMS