EPITAXIAL FE16N2 FILMS GROWN BY SPUTTERING

We have been able to obtain alpha''-Fe16N2 films using an underlayer t emplate to induce the epitaxial growth of this metastable phase. They are epitaxial in the (001) direction and show single crystallinity in plane. Furthermore, they are deposited by simple reactive nitrogen spu ttering. They have an average magnetic moment of 250 emu/g, considerab ly larger than the moment (217 emu/g) for pure bcc iron. Conversion el ectron Mossbauer spectroscopy gives three hyperfine fields correspondi ng to three different iron sites, as expected for this structure. (C) 1994 American Institute of Physics.