Surface morphology and dynamic scaling in growth of iron nitride thin films deposited by dc magnetron sputtering

Abstract

Iron nitride films were deposited by dc magnetron sputtering using an Ar/N2 gas mixture. The structure, roughness, and surface morphology of the films were investigated using x-ray diffraction, grazing incidence x-ray scattering (GIXS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was found that the morphologies and structures of the films were influenced by the N2 fraction. The perpendicular fluctuations in the height h(x,t) of the surface were also analyzed by AFM and GIXS in the light of dynamical scaling approach. The surfaces of the films typically exhibited self-affining structures both in space and in time. The two dependent nontrivial exponents, roughness exponent α and growth exponent β, were determined. For the iron nitride films grown at N2 fraction of 5%, 10%, and 30%, α≈0.65, 0.56, and 0.39, and β≈0.53±0.02, 0.38±0.02, and 0.29±0.03, respectively. The scaling relationship α+α/β≈2 is obeyed in all samples, which is in agreement with Kardar–Parisi–Zhang universality. The discrepancies between the theoretical foundations of dynamic scaling and experimental results have been discussed as well.

The Effect of Sputtering Parameters and Doping of Copper on Surface Free Energy and Magnetic Properties of Iron and Iron Nitride Nano Thin Films on Polymer Substrate

“…Ferromagnetic Fe 3 N phase changes to paramagnetic Fe 2 N at room temperature as the N at % increases from 25 to 33. In the last decade or so, paramagnetic ξ-Fe 2 N and nonmagnetic iron nitride phases also have received ample attention [ 9 ]. With a magnetization of 72.346 and the coercivity of 85.54 Oe ε-Fe 3 N can be useful in several applications [ 10 ].…”

Effect of Annealing on Stress, Microstructure, and Interfaces of NiV/B4C Multilayers

“…Generally, the fractal exponent (also known as the roughness exponent) exhibits similar values across different spatial frequencies. Moreover, the fractal exponent is related to the growth exponent by β ≈ h/(2 − h) [30] in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) model [31].…”