Formation of iron nitride thin films with Al and Ti additives

Abstract

In this work we investigate the process of iron nitride (Fe-N) phase formation using 2 at.% Al or 2 at.% Ti as additives. The samples were prepared with a magnetron sputtering technique using different amount of nitrogen during the deposition process. The nitrogen partial pressure (\pn) was varied between 0-50% (rest Argon) and the targets of pure Fe, [Fe+Ti] and [Fe+Al] were sputtered. The addition of small amount of Ti or Al results in improved soft-magnetic properties when sputtered using \pn $\le$ 10\p. When \pn is increased to 50\p non-magnetic Fe-N phases are formed. We found that iron mononitride (FeN) phases (N at% $\sim$50) are formed with Al or Ti addition at \pn =50% whereas in absence of such addition \eFeN phases (N\pat$\sim$30) are formed. It was found that the overall nitrogen content can be increased significantly with Al or Ti additions. On the basis of obtained result we propose a mechanism describing formation of Fe-N phases Al and Ti additives.

arXiv comment9 Pages, 7 Figures

References in corpus (4)

• Nanocrystallization and Amorphization Induced by Reactive Nitrogen Sputtering in Iron and Permalloy
• Fe and N self-diffusion in non-magnetic Fe:N
• Fundamental Magnetic Properties and Structural Implications for Nanocrystalline Fe-Ti-N Thin Films
• Fe and N self-diffusion in amorphous FeN: A SIMS and neutron reflectivity study

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Large magnetic anisotropy predicted for rare-earth free Fe16-xCoxN2 alloys
• Effect of dopants on thermal stability and self-diffusion in iron nitride thin films