Compositional Variation of Saturation Magnetization for Fe-N Thin Films with Respect to Nitrogen

Abstract

Fe _100-x N _x thin films were prepared by RF sputtering in nitrogen with a low plasma density. All films had compositions in the range 0≤x≤35 at% and consisted of a single metastable phase with a body-centered cubic structure. The saturation magnetization seemed to follow the Slater-Pauling curve with respect to the nitrogen concentration. In the films, the Fe atoms that were nearest-neighbors to nitrogen atoms were found to behave like Co atoms.