Lattice relaxation studies in strained epitaxial Fe-Co-C films

Aiming at high magnetocrystalline anisotropies, small additions of carbon have been proposed to stabilize a tetragonal lattice distortion in Fe-Co. In the present work, the relaxation mechanisms of Fe-Co films containing 2 at. % C are examined in detail. Film growth on buffers with different lattice...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied physics Vol. 117; no. 17
Main Authors Reichel, L., Schultz, L., Fähler, S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Melville American Institute of Physics 07.05.2015
Subjects
ANISOTROPY
Buffers
CARBON
COBALT
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Distortion
ELECTRON DIFFRACTION
EPITAXY
Film growth
Film thickness
IRON
LATTICE PARAMETERS
MAGNETIZATION
REFLECTION
RELAXATION
STRAINS
Tetragonal lattice
TETRAGONAL LATTICES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
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Summary:Aiming at high magnetocrystalline anisotropies, small additions of carbon have been proposed to stabilize a tetragonal lattice distortion in Fe-Co. In the present work, the relaxation mechanisms of Fe-Co films containing 2 at. % C are examined in detail. Film growth on buffers with different lattice constants is compared by a combination of in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction and ex-situ X-ray diffraction measurements. It is shown that relaxation starts at a thickness around 2 nm and ends at a distortion of about 4%, which is independent from the chosen buffer. Integral XRD and magnetization measurements suggest that the relaxation occurs over the complete film thickness.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.4908031