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 α" (Fe₁₆N₂) Phase was grown epitaxially on Fe single-crystal film at 100°C. The relationship among the crystal orientations of the α" (Fe₁₆N₂), α-Fe and GaAs was (001)_Fel6N2//(110)_Fe //(110)_GaAs and [110]_Fei6N2 //[001]_Fe//[001]_GaAs. The saturation magnetic flux density (B_s) 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).