• Acta Physica Sinica
  • Vol. 68, Issue 11, 118101-1 (2019)
Qi-Hai Lu1、4, Xiao-Li Tang2、*, Yu-Zhe Song1, Xian-Wei Zuo1, Gen-Liang Han1, Peng-Xun Yan3, and Wei-Min Liu4
Author Affiliations
  • 1Key Laboratory of Sensor and Sensing Technology of Gansu Province, Institute of Sensor Technology, Gansu Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • 2State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
  • 3Institute of Nano-materials Application Technology, Gansu Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • 4Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
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    DOI: 10.7498/aps.68.20182195 Cite this Article
    Qi-Hai Lu, Xiao-Li Tang, Yu-Zhe Song, Xian-Wei Zuo, Gen-Liang Han, Peng-Xun Yan, Wei-Min Liu. Thermal analysis on crystal phase synthesis of iron nitride film and its magnetic properties[J]. Acta Physica Sinica, 2019, 68(11): 118101-1 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    The phase transition law of Fe-N system is very important for efficiently synthesizing single-phase γ'-Fe4N thin films. The γ"-FeN thin films are deposited on silicon wafers via DC reactive magnetron sputtering; some of them are stripped from the silicon wafers and measured by using the synchronous thermal analysis (TG-DSC) for studying the phase transition law of Fe-N system. The results of TG-DSC show that at a heating rate of 10 ℃/min, the Fe-N system has five phase transitions in a temperature range between room temperature (RT) and 800 ℃, i.e. I (330 415 ℃):γ''-FeN→ξ-Fe2N with an endothermic value of 133.8 J/g; II (415 490 ℃): ξ-Fe2N→ε-Fe3N with no obvious latent heat of phase change; III (510 562 ℃): ε-Fe3N→γ'-Fe4N with an exotherm value of 29.3 J/g; IV (590 636 ℃):γ'-Fe4N→γ-Fe with an exotherm value of 42.6 J/g; V (636 690 ℃):γ-Fe→α-Fe with an endothermic value of 14.4 J/g. According to the phase transition law of Fe-N system, the crystal phase of iron nitride thin film is effectively regulated by vacuum annealing. The x-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) results show that the iron nitride thin film obtained by direct-sputtering in pure N2 is a single-phase γ"-FeN film, and it becomes a single-phase ξ-Fe2N film after being annealed at 350 ℃ for 2 h, a single-phase ε-Fe3N film after being annealed at 380 ℃ for 2 h, and a single-phase γ'-Fe4N film after being annealed at 430 ℃ for 7 h. The annealing temperature for the phase transition of Fe-N thin film is generally lower than that predicted by the TG-DSC experimental results, because it is affected by the annealing time too, that is, prolonging the annealing time at a lower temperature is also effective for regulating the crystal phase of Fe-N thin film. The magnetic properties of the Fe-N thin film are also studied via vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature. The γ'-Fe4N polycrystalline thin film shows an easy-magnetized hysteresis loop for the isotropic in-plane one, but a hard-magnetized hysteresis loop with a large demagnetizing field for the out-of-plane one, which belongs to the typical magnetic shape anisotropy. However, their saturation magnetizations are really the same (about 950 emu/cm3) both in the plane and out of the plane.
    Qi-Hai Lu, Xiao-Li Tang, Yu-Zhe Song, Xian-Wei Zuo, Gen-Liang Han, Peng-Xun Yan, Wei-Min Liu. Thermal analysis on crystal phase synthesis of iron nitride film and its magnetic properties[J]. Acta Physica Sinica, 2019, 68(11): 118101-1
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