Crystal structure and magnetic properties of the compound FeN

Nonmagneticγ″-FeNthin films epitaxially grown on Cu(001): Electronic structure and thermal stability

“…The results described above demonstrate that ␥Љ-FeN transforms into ␥Ј-Fe 4 N above 650 K. This explains the observation by Suzuki et al 31 of the appearance of magnetism in single phases of ␥Љ-FeN grown by dc reactive sputtering when heated above 635 K.…”

“…Theoretical calculations carried out for both compounds indicate that the sodium chloride phase is not stable. 29,30 Suzuki et al 31 showed that a pure fcc ZB structure with a 1:1 Fe:N composition can be formed by dc reactive sputtering of N 2 at low temperature. We confirm here these results concerning the stability of ͑␥Љ-FeN͒.…”

Electronic structure and magnetism of equiatomic FeN

“…However, the magnetic measurements by Suzuki et al [5] indicated that at low temperature the stoichiometric ZnS-type FeN is AFM and exhibits a micromagnetic character.…”

“…Since the critical lattice constant 4.45Å for the (0, 0, π)-AFM state is only 0.09Å larger than a th of the NM-ZnS phase, one could expect that the metastable AFM phase would be important for the observed micromagnetic character in ZnS-type FeN. [5] The total-energy curves calculated for FM and (0, 0, π)-AFM CsCl-type FeN are nearly identical and about 70mRy above those of ZnS and NaCl structures. Because of this rather higher total-energy, the CsCl-structure should not be considered a possible stable FeN phase.…”

“…While a large number of results for iron-rich nitrides, such as γ ′ -Fe 4 N, have appeared in the literature [1], only a few investigations on high Ncontent FeN, specifically FeN [2,3] with the proportionality 1:1 of Fe and N atoms were reported. Recently, two kinds of FeN structures have been determined in FeN films [4,5,6] synthesized by sputtering technique. They are the sodium chloride structure with lattice constants a=4.5Å and the zinc blende structure with lattice constant a≈4.33Å.…”