Development of epitaxial nitride-based bilayers for magnetic tunnel junctions

This paper reports on the growth and properties of bilayer structures consisting of insulating epitaxial Cu/sub 3/N films grown on epitaxial ferromagnetic /spl gamma/''-Fe/sub 4/N films. The interface between the layers is successfully probed with Mossbauer spectroscopy. In our fully epitaxial system, no intermixing occurs at the interface. Depending on the growth parameters (gas mixture, deposition temperature), the interface is also free of undesired nitride phases.