Epitaxial growth and thermal stability of Fe{sub 4}N film on TiN buffered Si(001) substrate

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3556919· OSTI ID:21560144

Xiang, H; Shi, F -Y; Voyles, P M; Chang, Y A ^[1]; Rzchowski, M S ^[2]

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1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)

Epitaxial Fe{sub 4}N thin films were grown on TiN buffered Si(001) substrate by dc reactive sputtering deposition at different substrate temperatures. Fe{sub 4}N films epitaxially grew on TiN within the substrate temperature range from 250 to 350 deg. C. Lower than 250 deg. C there will be some other Fe{sub x}N compounds formed and higher than 400 deg. C there will be only Fe left. Fe{sub 4}N is metastable and the postannealing process in vacuum will decompose Fe{sub 4}N film to Fe. However, introducing 30% N{sub 2} in the postannealing atmosphere can stabilize the Fe{sub 4}N up to 350 deg. C in the (Ar,N{sub 2}) gas mixture. The surface roughness of the epitaxial Fe{sub 4}N films decreases with film thickness. There is in-plane biaxial magnetic anisotropy of epitaxial Fe{sub 4}N(001) on Si(001) with the [100] easy direction.

• OSTI ID: 21560144
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 109; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANISOTROPY
ANNEALING
CRYSTAL GROWTH METHODS
DEPOSITION
DIMENSIONS
DISPERSIONS
EPITAXY
FERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS
FILMS
HEAT TREATMENTS
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON NITRIDES
MAGNETIC MATERIALS
MATERIALS
MIXTURES
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PNICTIDES
ROUGHNESS
SPUTTERING
STABILITY
SUBSTRATES
SURFACE PROPERTIES
SURFACES
THICKNESS
THIN FILMS
TITANIUM COMPOUNDS
TITANIUM NITRIDES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY