Properties of Fe(001) Single-Crystal Films Grown by Sputter Beam Method

Abstract

Fe(001) single-crystal films were grown on GaAs(001) substrates by the sputter beam (SB) method. Under the optimum etching condition of GaAs substrates, roughness of the film surfaces observed by atomic force microscope (AFM) can be reduced appreciably, and very flat surfaces can be obtained. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) gave little evidence of interfacial diffusion between the film and the substrate. X-ray diffraction patterns of the films indicate well-oriented crystal structures, that is, the half-width values of the rocking curve of the Fe(002) reflection are nearly equal to that of the (004) reflection from the GaAs substrates. Furthermore, enhanced growth of single-crystal films was also confirmed by the fact that the linewidth of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectra is equal to that of the single-crystal films formed by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). These results indicate that the SB method has some advantages as a method of single-crystal film synthesis.

Characterization of epitaxially grown Fe-N films by sputter beam method

“…It has been previously reported that high quality Fe ͑001͒ single-crystal films can be grown on GaAs ͑001͒ substrates by the SB method. 8 We have found that epitaxial ␣Ј-Fe-N films on the Fe ͑001͒ underlayer can be grown for a wide range of nitrogen content and subsequent post annealing enables us to synthesize ␣Љ phase in the ␣Ј-Fe-N films. We report the crystallographic structures and the magnetic properties of ␣Љ-Fe 16 N 2 phase precipitated in the epitaxially grown ␣Ј-Fe-N films.…”

“…This system consists of a discharge chamber and a film deposition chamber, and the details of the SB method are described elsewhere. 8 In order to stabilize the metastable Fe-N phase by suppressing formation of the thermally stable phases ͑␥ austenite phase or ␥Ј-Fe 4 N phase͒, we adopted an epitaxial process. An ␣-Fe single-crystal film, which was demonstrated in our previous report, 8 was used as an underlayer.…”