Texture development and anomalous grain growth in Sb-doped MnPt3 thin films by solid-state reaction of multilayered films

Antimony-doped MnPt3 thin films have been successfully fabricated by solid- state reaction of thin multilayered Mn/Sb/Pt films. It was found that the ( 100) preferential orientation of the MnPt3 phase was developed with increas ing antimony content. In addition to this, an anomalous crystalline growth with (100) oriented grains was observed, which resulted in a wide distribut ion of the grain size of the annealed samples. This behavior is considered to be secondary grain growth, which is usually caused by a surface free ene rgy minimization rule. However, the (100) planes of MnPt3 do not have the l owest surface free energy. We discuss the mechanism of this anomalous grain growth from the view-point of strain energy minimization, in conjunction w ith the anisotropy in the strain energy density for each crystallographic p lane of MnPt3. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.