Effect of dopants on thermal stability and self-diffusion in iron-nitride thin films
Abstract
We studied the effect of dopants (Al, Ti, Zr) on the thermal stability of iron-nitride thin films prepared using a dc magnetron sputtering technique. Structure and magnetic characterization of deposited samples reveal that the thermal stability together with soft magnetic properties of iron-nitride thin films get significantly improved with doping. To understand the observed results, detailed Fe and N self-diffusion measurements were performed. It was observed that N self-diffusion gets suppressed with Al doping, whereas Ti or Zr doping results in somewhat faster N diffusion. On the other hand, Fe self-diffusion seems to get suppressed with any dopant of which the heat of nitride formation is significantly smaller than that of iron nitride. Importantly, it was observed that N self-diffusion plays only a trivial role, as compared to Fe self-diffusion, in affecting the thermal stability of iron-nitride thin films. Based on the obtained results, the effect of dopants on the self-diffusion process is discussed.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review B
- Pub Date:
- October 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevB.90.144412
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1406.3446
- Bibcode:
- 2014PhRvB..90n4412T
- Keywords:
-
- 66.30.Fq;
- 68.60.Dv;
- 68.65.Ac;
- 75.50.Bb;
- Self-diffusion in metals semimetals and alloys;
- Thermal stability;
- thermal effects;
- Multilayers;
- Fe and its alloys;
- Condensed Matter - Materials Science
- E-Print:
- 10 pages, 9 figs