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We present a detailed study of the microstructural, electrical and magnetic properties of Fe 35 Co 65 thin films deposited by thermal evaporation using nanocrystalline mixture. The nanocrystalline Fe 35 Co 65 powder was prepared by mechanical alloying process using high energy ball milling and then carefully studied. Good homogeneity, purity and stoichiometry were demonstrated in the powder composed of 25 nm mean crystallite size. Microstuctural analysis of Fe 35 Co 65 thin films ranging from 9 to 50 nm deposited on Si (001) shows that the stoichiometry is conserved over the whole thickness range and that (110) texture forms as the film thickness increases. Our work finally demonstrates that high saturation magnetization, low coercivity and high electrical resistivity FeCo thin films can be achieved by thermal evaporation from properly set mechanical alloying powder.

The mechanical alloying process has been used to prepare nanocrystalline Cu70Fe18Co12 alloy from elemental Cu, Fe and Co powders in a planetary ball mill under argon atmosphere. The interdiffusion of Cu, Fe and Co leads to a heterogeneous solid solution with Cu-Fe-Co rich environments after 12 h of milling. The end product is a mixture of a highly disordered structure, fcc-Cu (Fe-Co), phase having different microstructural and structural parameters. For all the elaborate series, the evolution of coercive field and the remanence according to the time of milling is analyzed. The coercivity, Hc, decreases rapidly up to 8 h of milling to about 0.3 A/m and then the coercivity, increases to a maximum at 54 h. The influence of the time of milling at the resistivity of these alloys is shown.