Abstract
Phase pure perovskite Pd–Fe–N thin films were synthesized using combinatorial reactive sputtering and their elastic properties were measured by nanoindentation. The elastic modulus of PdFe3N is 171 ± 14 GPa. Various magnetic configurations, from nonmagnetic to paramagnetic, ferromagnetic (FM), and ferrimagnetic (FiM), were probed by ab initio calculations to identify the possible spin state of the as-grown PdFe3N thin film. Since the Curie temperature for PdFe3N is large, it is expected that our nanoindentation data are consistent with the FM configuration. However, the difference between the calculated elastic modulus in the FM state and the measured one is 24%. The calculated elastic modulus for the FiM configuration is deviating by only 2% from the experimental value. Hence, we propose that the FiM magnetic ordering is quenched during thin film synthesis.
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