Epitaxial Fe16N2 thin film on nonmagnetic seed layer

Xudong Hang; Xiaowei Zhang; Bin Ma; Valeria Lauter; Jian Ping Wang

doi:10.1063/1.5028396

Epitaxial Fe₁₆N₂ thin film on nonmagnetic seed layer

Xudong Hang, Xiaowei Zhang, Bin Ma, Valeria Lauter, Jian Ping Wang

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Metastable α″-Fe₁₆N₂ has attracted much interest as a candidate for rare-earth-free hard magnetic materials. We demonstrate that Fe₁₆N₂ thin films were grown epitaxially on Cr seed layers with MgO (001) substrates by facing-target sputtering. Good crystallinity with the epitaxial relation MgO (001)[110] ∥ Cr (001)[100] ∥ Fe16N2 (001)[100] was obtained. The chemical order parameter, which quantifies the degree of N ordering in the Fe₁₆N₂ (the N-disordered phase is α′-Fe₈N martensite), reaches 0.75 for Cr-seeded samples. Cr has a perfect lattice constant match with Fe₁₆N₂, and no noticeable strain can be assigned to Fe₁₆N₂. The intrinsic saturation magnetization of this non-strained Fe₁₆N₂ thin film at room temperature is determined to be 2.31 T by polarized neutron reflectometry and confirmed with vibrating sample magnetometry. Our work provides a platform to directly study the magnetic properties of high purity Fe₁₆N₂ films with a high order parameter.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	192402
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	112
Issue number	19
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5028396
State	Published - May 7 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Research at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division and by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U. S. Department of Energy. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC Program.

Funding Information:
Research at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division and by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U. S. Department of Energy. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC Program.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Author(s).

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title = "Epitaxial Fe16N2 thin film on nonmagnetic seed layer",

abstract = "Metastable α″-Fe16N2 has attracted much interest as a candidate for rare-earth-free hard magnetic materials. We demonstrate that Fe16N2 thin films were grown epitaxially on Cr seed layers with MgO (001) substrates by facing-target sputtering. Good crystallinity with the epitaxial relation MgO (001)[110] ∥ Cr (001)[100] ∥ Fe16N2 (001)[100] was obtained. The chemical order parameter, which quantifies the degree of N ordering in the Fe16N2 (the N-disordered phase is α′-Fe8N martensite), reaches 0.75 for Cr-seeded samples. Cr has a perfect lattice constant match with Fe16N2, and no noticeable strain can be assigned to Fe16N2. The intrinsic saturation magnetization of this non-strained Fe16N2 thin film at room temperature is determined to be 2.31 T by polarized neutron reflectometry and confirmed with vibrating sample magnetometry. Our work provides a platform to directly study the magnetic properties of high purity Fe16N2 films with a high order parameter.",

author = "Xudong Hang and Xiaowei Zhang and Bin Ma and Valeria Lauter and Wang, {Jian Ping}",

note = "Funding Information: Research at ORNL{\textquoteright}s Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division and by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U. S. Department of Energy. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC Program. Funding Information: Research at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division and by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U. S. Department of Energy. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC Program. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Author(s).",

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N2 - Metastable α″-Fe16N2 has attracted much interest as a candidate for rare-earth-free hard magnetic materials. We demonstrate that Fe16N2 thin films were grown epitaxially on Cr seed layers with MgO (001) substrates by facing-target sputtering. Good crystallinity with the epitaxial relation MgO (001)[110] ∥ Cr (001)[100] ∥ Fe16N2 (001)[100] was obtained. The chemical order parameter, which quantifies the degree of N ordering in the Fe16N2 (the N-disordered phase is α′-Fe8N martensite), reaches 0.75 for Cr-seeded samples. Cr has a perfect lattice constant match with Fe16N2, and no noticeable strain can be assigned to Fe16N2. The intrinsic saturation magnetization of this non-strained Fe16N2 thin film at room temperature is determined to be 2.31 T by polarized neutron reflectometry and confirmed with vibrating sample magnetometry. Our work provides a platform to directly study the magnetic properties of high purity Fe16N2 films with a high order parameter.

AB - Metastable α″-Fe16N2 has attracted much interest as a candidate for rare-earth-free hard magnetic materials. We demonstrate that Fe16N2 thin films were grown epitaxially on Cr seed layers with MgO (001) substrates by facing-target sputtering. Good crystallinity with the epitaxial relation MgO (001)[110] ∥ Cr (001)[100] ∥ Fe16N2 (001)[100] was obtained. The chemical order parameter, which quantifies the degree of N ordering in the Fe16N2 (the N-disordered phase is α′-Fe8N martensite), reaches 0.75 for Cr-seeded samples. Cr has a perfect lattice constant match with Fe16N2, and no noticeable strain can be assigned to Fe16N2. The intrinsic saturation magnetization of this non-strained Fe16N2 thin film at room temperature is determined to be 2.31 T by polarized neutron reflectometry and confirmed with vibrating sample magnetometry. Our work provides a platform to directly study the magnetic properties of high purity Fe16N2 films with a high order parameter.

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