Thin Solid Films, Vol.677, 90-94, 2019
Continuously regulating the nitrogen concentration x of epsilon-Fe3-xN (0 <= x < 1) epitaxial films
It remains a challenge to continuously control the nitrogen concentration x, as well as the physical properties, of epsilon-Fe3-xN epitaxial films. Here epsilon-Fe3-xN polycrystalline and [001]-oriented epitaxial films with x between 0.07 and 0.87 were simultaneously sputtered on glass and MgO(111) substrates. The surface of the films is made up of triangle and quasi-hexagonal particles which correspond nicely to the hexagonal crystal structure of epsilon-Fe3-xN. Both epsilon-Fe3-xN polycrystalline and epitaxial films show metallic behavior and, more importantly, the contribution of magnetic scattering to the resistivity increases as x increases. The saturation magnetization of 5 K decreases monotonically from 1060 to 150 kA/m with increasing x. What is noteworthy is that the in-plane coercivity force of epitaxial films is far less than that of polycrystalline counterparts. Specifically, the coercivity of epsilon-Fe2.93N epitaxial film is <= 2.39 kA/m.