Layer-by-layer growth of thin epitaxial Fe3Si films on GaAs (001)

Molecular beam epitaxy of Fe₃Si films on GaAs (001) is studied in situ by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. Fe₃Si grows layer-by-layer. During deposition the growth front roughens as indicated by the damping of the X-ray oscillations and corresponding atomic force micrographs. The X-ray oscillations are modified during growth at substrate temperatures of 180 °C and below.     

Thermal process effect on microstructure and magnetic properties of epitaxial FePd(001) multilayer films

Thermal process effect on the microstructure and magnetic characterizations of epitaxial FePd multilayer films grown on MgO(001) substrates via electron-beam deposition have been investigated. For the FePd films directly grown at 400 degrees C, the isolated island-like morphology was observed and displayed a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy with a large coercivity of 8000 Oe. On the other hand, the FePd films grown at 100 degrees C and then post-annealed at 400 degrees C showed continuous film morphology and with a lower remanence corresponded to the alternate up and down orientations of the magnetization. The significant distinction in magnetic exhibition of the FePd films was due to the remarkable change in surface and magnetic domain structures caused by varied interfacial energy during different thermal processes.     

Structural and morphological properties of ZnO:Ga thin films

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a promising semiconductor material with a great variety of applications. Compared to undoped ZnO, impurity-doped ZnO has a lower resistivity and better stability. With this aim, Ga has been proposed as a dopant. In this study, the structural characteristics and surface morphology of ZnO films produced by PEMOCVD at a substrate temperature of 250 °C on the c-plane (001) of sapphire were investigated. Doping was realized with 1, 3, 5 and 10 wt.% of Ga₂(AA)₃ in the precursor's mixture. At lower contents, Ga stimulates growth of (002) oriented textured films and the smallest FWHM was obtained as low as 0.17° for ZnO:Ga with 1 wt.%. A change in preferential orientation as well as surface smoothing and roughness decreasing of the films were observed with further increasing Ga content in precursor's mixture. We assume a key role of Ga and note that such a feature would be beneficial for the application of ZnO thin films for formation of abrupt junctions in p-n device structures.     

Nearly perfect (001)-oriented Ag/[CoPt/C]5/Ag composite films deposited on glass substrates

Sandwich Ag/[CoPt(3 nm)/C(3 nm)]₅/Ag films were deposited on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering. After annealing at 600 °C for 30 min, a nearly-perfect (001)-oriented L1₀ CoPt film with extremely high perpendicular anisotropy was obtained when the thickness of Ag top- and underlayer were both equal to 5 nm. The strain energy caused by the Ag layer together with the diffusion of Ag and C atoms, resulted in the enhancement of the ordering degree of the L1₀ CoPt phase and the development of the (001) texture of the films.     

溅射方法对FePt:Ag颗粒膜磁性能及微观结构的影响

分别采用共溅射和多层膜溅射方法制备了FePt:Ag颗粒膜.样品的磁性能和微观特性分别用振动样品磁强计(VSM)、磁力显微镜(MFM)和透射电镜(TEM)进行了表征.研究结果表明:多层膜溅射制备的FePt:Ag颗粒膜能在较低的退火温度下发生有序化相变;而共溅射制备的FePt:Ag颗粒膜经过相同的退火条件后,具有更高的矫顽力,及更细、分布更均匀的晶粒和磁畴结构.     

Effects of Cu underlayer on the growth and magnetic properties of FePt thin films on MgO (001) substrate

During ordering process of face centered tegragonal (fct) L1(0) phase of the FePt alloy, there exist three growth variants of axes (001) from original disordered fcc structured phase. When FePt film was directly deposited on the MgO (001) substrate, the variant perpendicular to the film plane grew, resulting in a low out-of-plane coercivity of 1.3 kOe. By using Cu underlayer, two variants lying in the film plane got same chance to grow, which caused an in-plane perpendicular alignment of the tetragonal axes of FePt L1(0) phases. The crystallographic relationship between Cu and FePt layers is Cu (100)<100>//fct FePt (100)<100>. A high in-plane coercivity of 4.6 kOe was obtained due to the high density of micro-defects (mcro-twins, anti-phase boundaries, etc.) in the film plane. This work demonstrated a way of selecting the growth variants of ordering process to adjust the magnetic properties of the ordered FePt thin films.     

Effect of capped layer on microstructure and magnetic properties of FePt films

Sputter-deposited FePt films exhibit an in-plane magnetic anisotropy when MgO is used as the capped layer. The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of FePt films can be enhanced by introducing a Ag capped layer instead of a MgO capped layer. Although the in-plane coercivity (Hc_//) of FePt films decreases slightly after introducing a Ag capped layer instead of a MgO capped layer, the perpendicular coercivity (Hc_⊥) is increased significantly from 3169 Oe to 6726 Oe. Auger electron spectroscopy analysis confirms that Ag atoms diffuse from the capped layer into the FePt magnetic layer and are mainly distributed at the grain boundary of FePt. This phenomenon results in enhancement of the grain boundary energy and inhibition of grain growth, thus increasing the perpendicular coercivity and reducing the grain size of the FePt film.     

Growth of cubic and hexagonal CdTe thin films by pulsed laser deposition

The paper reports the growth of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using excimer laser (KrF, λ=248 nm, 10 Hz) on corning 7059 glass and SnO₂-coated glass (SnO₂/glass) substrates at different substrate temperatures (T_s) and at different laser energy pulses. Single crystal target CdTe was used for deposition of thin films. With 30 min deposition time, 1.8- to ∼3-μm-thick films were obtained up to 200 °C substrate temperature. However, the film re-evaporates from the substrate surface at temperatures >275 °C. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows an average grain size ∼0.3 μm. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms the formation of CdTe cubic phase at all pulse energies except at 200 mJ. At 200 mJ laser energy, the films show hexagonal phase. Optical properties of CdTe were also investigated and the band gap of CdTe films were found as 1.54 eV for hexagonal phase and ∼1.6 eV for cubic phase.     

Thickness dependence of (001) texture evolution in FePt thin films on an amorphous substrate

Thickness dependency of (001) texture evolution in Fe₅₄Pt₄₆ thin films on an amorphous substrate was investigated using in-house X-ray diffraction or a synchrotron source. The (001) texture was well developed in Fe₅₄Pt₄₆ thin films, especially when its thickness was equivalent to the grain height. The findings show that strain relaxation anisotropy along the film axis, which leads to a (001) crystal (a crystal with a (001) plane parallel to the film plane) that is more stable than others, was large for a low thickness film. In addition, abnormal grain growth was used to explain the abrupt development of a (001) texture. The advantage of multilayered as-deposited structure is also discussed.     

Electronic and magnetic properties of ultra-thin epitaxial magnetite films on MgO(001)

The electronic and magnetic properties of epitaxial Fe₃O₄ (001) films on MgO(100) substrates were studied throughout the 2.5- to 30-nm thickness range using conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy. Despite the superparamagnetism that was observed for film thickness below 5 nm, the Verwey transition persisted even for the thinnest film. Temperature-dependent Mössbauer measurements between 80 K and 400 K revealed that the activation energy for the magnetic moment fluctuations in the 3-nm magnetite film is higher than the magnetic anisotropy energy by an order of magnitude.     

Formation of β-FeSi2 thin films on non-silicon substrates

β-FeSi₂ films were prepared on non-silicon substrates by sputtering. The crystalline growth, stress induced cracks and adhesive ability to the substrate were investigated on substrate temperature and thermal expansion coefficient of substrate materials. It was found that crack formation in β-FeSi₂ films was dependent on the thermal expansion coefficients of CaF₂, MgO and quartz glass insulating materials. High-density cracks were observed from β-FeSi₂ films on CaF₂ and quartz glass substrates with large difference of the thermal expansion coefficient between β-FeSi₂ film and substrate materials, and it was crack-free on MgO substrate with a thermal expansion coefficient close to that of β-FeSi₂ films. Polycrystalline β-FeSi₂ films grew on Mo, Ta, W, Fe and stainless steel (SS) substrates at low substrate temperature around 400 °C. There was no α-FeSi₂ phase confirmed in the films. All the films had continuous structures without noticeable cracks even though they have different thermal expansion coefficients. Capacity-voltage measurements showed that β-FeSi₂ films formed on SS substrates has n-type conductivity, with residual carrier concentrations of about 1.3∼6.4 × 10¹⁸ cm^− 3. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profile measurements identified homogeneous distribution of Fe and Si atoms in the film region, but with a large interface region between the film and the substrate.     

Mechanism of biaxial alignment in thin films, deposited by magnetron sputtering

Biaxially aligned TiN layers have been deposited by reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering. In this work, a mechanism for the resulting microstructure and biaxial alignment of the deposited TiN layers will be discussed. According to the described model, the resulting biaxial alignment is caused by an overgrowth mechanism (zone T) due to an anisotropy in growth rate of the different oriented grains towards the incoming material flux. Hence, the in-plane alignment will mainly depend on two parameters: the mobility during the growth (zone T condition) and the spread on the incoming material flux. This spread on the incoming material flux has been calculated by an earlier published Monte Carlo simulation program of the transport of sputtered particles towards the substrate. The model for the mechanism of biaxial alignment is validated by comparing the experimental and theoretical influence of target-substrate distance and working pressure on the resulting in-plane alignment.     

Atomic layer deposition and post-deposition annealing of PbTiO3 thin films

Lead titanate thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition on Si(100) using Ph₄Pb and Ti(O-i-Pr)₄ as metal precursors and O₃ and H₂O as oxygen sources. The influence of the Ti : Pb precursor pulsing ratio on the film growth, stoichiometry and quality was studied at two different temperatures, i.e. 250 and 300 °C. Uniform and stoichiometric films were obtained using a Ti : Pb precursor pulsing ratio of 1 : 10 at 250 °C or 1 : 28 at 300 °C. The as-deposited films were amorphous but the crystalline PbTiO₃ phase was obtained by rapid thermal annealing at 600-900 °C both in N₂ and O₂ ambient. Thin PbTiO₃ films were visually uniform and roughness values for as-deposited and annealed films were observed by atomic force microscopy.     

Effect of annealing in external magnetic field on the microstructure and magnetic properties of FePt films

We have studied the influence of annealing in an external magnetic field on the microstructure and magnetic properties of a multilayer Si/Fe(2 nm)/Fe₅₀Pt₅₀(20 nm)/Pt(2 nm) structure synthesized by means of sequential RF magnetron sputtering of the components. The magnetic field was oriented perpendicular to layers of the structure. It is established that annealing in the external magnetic field leads to the formation of predominant (001) texture in the multilayer structure with L1₀-FePt phase. Thus, a method of obtaining multilayer structures based on FePt films required for the perpendicular magnetic recording has been developed.     

Nano-sized magnetic instabilities in Fe/NiO/Fe(001) epitaxial thin films

We report on a magnetic imaging study of the Fe/NiO/Fe(001) trilayer structure, by means of X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) and spin-polarised low-energy electron microscopy (SPLEEM). Two different magnetic couplings between the Fe layers are observed depending on the NiO thickness being greater or smaller than a critical value. Very small magnetic domains and domain walls are observed in the top Fe layer. They are dramatically smaller than those observed in the Fe substrate, and have a convoluted topology. Furthermore they seem to be unstable with respect to an applied magnetic field for any NiO thickness except that corresponding to the transition between the different coupling regimes. The phenomenology of such magnetic nano-structures and the dependence of the magnetic behaviour of the layered structure on the NiO spacer thickness are discussed on the basis of the experimental results and of state-of-the-art theoretical models.     

Correlation between structural and electrical properties of ZnO thin films

Thin ZnO films were deposited by radio frequency (r.f.) and direct current (d.c.) magnetron sputtering techniques onto glass substrates. Microstructural and electrical properties of ZnO films were studied using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and resistivity measurements. It was found that the size of the crystallites in the d.c. deposited films increased with increasing film thickness, while the crystallite size of r.f. deposited films remained unchanged. The d.c. deposited grains also had much stronger orientation related to the substrate than the r.f. films. XRD data indicated that the thin films with d<350 nm for r.f. and <750 nm for d.c. films have a very high degree of ZnO nonstoichiometry. This agreed well with the conductivity measurements and R(T) behaviour of the films with different resistance R. It was also found that the electrical resistivity of the samples increased exponentially with the thickness of films.     

FePt单层连续膜和颗粒膜的制备与磁性能研究

利用磁控溅射在不同Ar气压下制备了不同膜厚的FePt薄膜。利用透射电镜(TEM)研究了溅射气压和膜厚对薄膜形貌的影响,利用振动样品磁强计(VSM)研究了溅射气压和膜厚对薄膜磁性能的影响。结果表明溅射气压和膜厚对溅射态单层FePt薄膜的表面形貌、颗粒尺寸有很大影响。随着溅射气压的增大,颗粒尺寸减小,从连续膜转变成颗粒膜;随着膜厚的增加,颗粒尺寸变大,从颗粒膜变成连续膜。通过调节溅射气压可以控制FePt的岛状结构,从而获得较理想的FePt颗粒薄膜。溅射气压和膜厚对经过热处理的L10-FePt薄膜的磁性能有很大影响。随着溅射气压增加,形核场由正值转变成负值,矩形比有增大趋势;随着厚度的增加,无序-有序相转变更充分。     

Transmission electron microscopy study of the initial growth stage of GaSb grown on Si (001) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy method

The microstructural properties at the initial growth stage of the GaSb heteroepitaxial growth on a silicon (Si) substrate were investigated using transmission electron microscopy. Well-separated and tall GaSb islands were observed when GaSb was directly grown on a Si substrate (sample A). On the other hand, GaSb was grown to the coalesced and flat islands when a low-temperature AlSb buffer (sample B) was introduced. The different morphologies of the GaSb islands were related to the microstructural properties of the interface between the GaSb and the Si substrate. The GaSb/Si interface was rough, and disordered atomic arrangements were observed at the interface in sample A. On the other hand, the GaSb/Si interface was flat, and well-ordered atomic arrangements appeared at the interface in sample B. Entirely different mechanisms for the relaxation of a misfit strain were demonstrated from a microstructural viewpoint.     

Some structural properties of CdO:F films produced by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method

The fluorine doped cadmium oxide (CdO:F) samples have been deposited at 250 °C by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method. Cadmiumacetat-dihydrat and ammonium fluoride have been taken as a source of cadmium and fluorine-dopant respectively. The thickness of the CdO:F samples was about 1.4 μm. X-ray diffraction pattern of the CdO:F samples has revealed that the samples are polycrystalline with cubic sodium chloride structure. There are shifts of the d values (interplanar spacing) for CdO:F samples with respect to standard CdO film. The lattice parameters for cubic structure have been calculated using the Bragg equation. The texture coefficients calculated for various planes at different fluorine concentrations indicate that the samples have exhibited (111) and (200) preferential orientations.     

Correlation between morphology and transport properties of composite films

Morphological and electrical properties of composite films were studied and compared by a computer experiment. Voronoi tessellation was used for morphological characterization of the structures. The tunnel effect was the basic mechanism in electrical simulations performed.