Nanometer scale structural and compositional inhomogeneities of half-Heusler CoTi1-xFexSb thin films

Bonef, Bastien; Harrington, Sean D.; Pennachio, Daniel J.; Speck, James. S.; Palmstrøm, Chris J.

doi:10.1063/1.5082979

Nanometer scale structural and compositional inhomogeneities of half-Heusler CoTi_1-xFe_xSb thin films

Journal Article · Wed May 22 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5082979· OSTI ID:1612160

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Speck, James. S. ^[2]; ^[2]

Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); DOE/OSTI
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

The correlative use of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), and atom probe tomography (APT) allows the structure of substitutionally alloyed half-Heusler compound CoTi_1-xFe_xSb to be characterized at the nanometer scale. For x = 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5, XRD patterns indicate an epitaxial cube-on-cube growth with no detectable secondary phases and are suggestive of high crystalline quality for all three of the films. This is supported using atomic resolution STEM images, which revealed the absence of secondary phases or polycrystalline regions, thus confirming the half-Heusler structure of the CoTi_1-xFe_xSb films. For all three samples, the APT reconstructions were optimized to resolve the atomic planes in the [001] growth direction allowing the exploitation of reliable datasets. We note the presence of Fe-rich phases in the samples with Fe atoms sitting on Ti crystallographic sites is revealed. A strong phase separation is observed for x = 0.2 and x = 0.3 and is almost no longer observed for x = 0.5 in good agreement with the magnetic properties of the films.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center (SSLEEC); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR); USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0014388

OSTI ID:: 1612160

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1515112

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 125; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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