Structures and Saturation Magnetic Flux Density of Epitaxially Grown Fe and Fe-N Films on GaAs (100)

Fe and Fe-N films were deposited on GaAs (100) substrates using an MBE system. 100 Å thick Fe single-crystal films were grown at substrate temperatures between 300°C and 400°C, at a rate of 1 Å/sec. Fe-N films of thickness 1000 Å were then grown at a rate of 0.04 Å/sec. The ¿" (Fe16N2) Phase was grown epitaxially on Fe single-crystal film at 100°C. The relationship among the crystal orientations of the ¿" (Fe16N2), ¿-Fe and GaAs was (001)Fel6N2//(110)Fe //(110)GaAs and [110]Fei6N2 //[001]Fe//[001]GaAs. The saturation magnetic flux density (Bs) of this film was found to be 2.20 T, lower than the expected value of 2.83 T, although this value was 10% higher than for Fe single-crystal films on GaAs (100).