Structural and magnetic phase transitions in chromium nitride thin films grown by rf nitrogen plasma molecular beam epitaxy

Alam, Khan; Disseler, Steven M.; Ratcliff, William; Borchers, J. A.; Ponce‐Pérez, R.; Cocoletzi, Gregorio H.; Takeuchi, Noboru; Foley, Andrew; Richard, A.; Ingram, David C.; Smith, Arthur R.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.96.104433

Cited by 32 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Previously, CrN films had been prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering [ 26,30 ] and RF nitrogen plasma‐assisted MBE. [ 31 ] The deposition of CrN films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique is rare and challenging. The presence of nitrogen vacancies is unavoidable while using a plasma source due to the inactive Cr metal and inert N ions.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Strain‐Mediated High Conductivity in Ultrathin Antiferromagnetic Metallic Nitrides

Jin

Wang

et al. 2020

Advanced Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Strain engineering provides the ability to control the ground states and associated phase transition in the epitaxial films. However, the systematic study of intrinsic characters and their strain dependency in transition-metal nitrides remains challenging due to the difficulty in fabricating the stoichiometric and high-quality films. Here we report the observation of electronic state transition in highly crystalline antiferromagnetic CrN films with strain and reduced dimensionality. Shrinking the film thickness to a critical value of ~ 30 unit cells, a profound conductivity reduction accompanied by unexpected volume expansion is observed in CrN films. The electrical conductivity is observed surprisingly when the CrN layer as thin as single unit cell thick, which is far below the critical thickness of most metallic films. We found that the metallicity of an ultrathin CrN film recovers from an insulating behavior upon the removal of as-grown strain by fabrication of first-ever freestanding nitride films. Both first-principles calculations and linear dichroism measurements reveal that the strain-mediated orbital splitting effectively customizes the relatively small bandgap at the Fermi level, leading to exotic phase transition in CrN. The ability to achieve highly conductive nitride ultrathin films by harness strain-controlling over competing phases can be used for utilizing their exceptional characteristics.

show abstract

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Strain‐Mediated High Conductivity in Ultrathin Antiferromagnetic Metallic Nitrides

Jin

Wang

et al. 2020

Advanced Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…10 This transition has been extensively studied as the prototype for strong magnetostructural coupling. 9,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] The magnetic properties of nanoscale CrN have not been described before. Here, we use magnetic measurements and in-situ X-ray diffraction on nanoparticles of CrN synthesized from CrCl3 and sodium in liquid ammonia to show that pure CrN nanoparticles as small as 10 nm in diameter exhibit the coupled magnetostructural transition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-Temperature Synthesis and Magnetostructural Transition in Antiferromagnetic, Refractory Nanoparticles: Chromium Nitride, CrN

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nanostructured chromium nitride (CrN), both a hard material and a high-melting compound that is used in the medical industry and for new energy-harvesting applications, was synthesized phase-pure for the first time via low-temperature solution synthesis in liquid ammonia. TEM analysis confirms the nanoscale character of CrN. The antiferromagnetic properties of the agglomerates of nanoparticles are discussed in comparison to literature data on the bulk materials. SQUID and DSC measurements show the transition from paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic at 258.5 K. In-situ low-temperature X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the magnetostructural phase transition at this temperature, not seen before for nanoscale CrN. This structural distortion was calculated earlier to be driven by magnetic stress. The bottom-up synthesis of CrN allows for the production of nearly oxygenand carbon-free and highly dispersed fine particles.

show abstract

“…With the rapid development of surface testing technology [1,2], atomic level functional materials have gradually attracted the attention of researchers [3][4][5]. Accordingly, remarkable optimization of electronic and magnetic performance has been explored in atomic structure from those on the solid surface [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic Enhancement and Nitriding Process of Fe Atomic Layers on Si (111)-7×7-CH3OH Surface

Ding

Gong

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fe atoms were steamed on Si(111)-7×7 surface, which had been saturated by CH3OH. Aim to greatly enhance the magnetic performance, nitriding experiments were implemented and adjusted on the existing linear Fe clusters. First of all, the dissociation of CH3OH adsorption process was deducted in detail, which laid a good foundation for the better use of surface quasi-potential. Further to solve the coming problems like weak linearity and low nitriding effect, the formation mechanism of iron-nitride was explored. Atomic layers of Fe deposition are confirmed as the key to NH3 dissociation process (at room temperature). Specifically, the higher Fe atomic layer contacted by NH3, the weaker influence of surface quasi-potential. With the introduction of Ar, Fe deposition could be controlled at 1-2 atomic layers, result in good NH3 dissociation and nitriding efficiency. Combing with magnetic performance result, the density of residual magnetization is improved from 1.5E-0.5 emu to 7.0E-0.5 emu, forming an obvious linear structure. It is also proved that our new linear iron-nitride clusters will maintain good stability with the improvement of nitriding efficiency.PACS: 07.79.Cz; 81.15.-z; 75.75.Fk

show abstract

Structural and magnetic phase transitions in chromium nitride thin films grown by rf nitrogen plasma molecular beam epitaxy

Cited by 32 publications

References 37 publications

Strain‐Mediated High Conductivity in Ultrathin Antiferromagnetic Metallic Nitrides

Strain‐Mediated High Conductivity in Ultrathin Antiferromagnetic Metallic Nitrides

Low-Temperature Synthesis and Magnetostructural Transition in Antiferromagnetic, Refractory Nanoparticles: Chromium Nitride, CrN

Magnetic Enhancement and Nitriding Process of Fe Atomic Layers on Si (111)-7×7-CH3OH Surface

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About