a grounded collimator not shown could be included to further reduce interference as described above rotation of the magnetron 130 during sputtering of the target 114 results in an even erosion profile the apparatus of the invention deposits a magnetic film on the substrate 16 116 by sputtering the target 14 114 with a plasma generated adjacent the target and by maintaining a surface of the substrate 16 116 substantially outside the plasma the substrate 16 116 is maintained in a magnetic field that is substantially parallel at the substrate surface the target 14 114 and the parallel magnetic field is separated by distance and or a grounded collimator to reduce interference with the substantially parallel magnetic field at the surface of the substrate during deposition of a magnetic film the chamber pressure is maintained below 15 mtorr preferably below 5 mtorr to reduce collision of molecules within the chamber 10 and prevent dispersion of the deposited film the reduced pressure also results in deposited films having a lower content of the processing gas such as argon lower argon content significantly improves the deposited film by reducing the easy axis coercivity of the magnetic film fig5 illustrates the effect of chamber pressures ranging from 1 to 20 mtorr on the easy axis coercivity of nife magnetic films 80 ni 20 fe having a thickness ranging from 200 to 1000 u00e5 lower argon content also significantly improves the deposited film by increasing the magnetoresistance of the magnetic film fig6 illustrates the effect of chamber pressures ranging from 1 mtorr to 20 mtorr on the magnetoresistance of the nife magnetic films of fig5 nickel iron alloys such as.