Abstract
We report the synthesis of iron mononitride (FeN) thin films having zinc blende (ZB) type structure, deposited using a direct current magnetron sputtering process on amorphous quartz substrates. The effect of substrate temperature (Ts) on the structure of FeN thin films was systematically investigated by varying the Tsfrom 300 to 500 K(in close intervals of 25K). The long-range as well as the local structure of samples was studied using x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) at N K-edge, Fe L and K-edge and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) at Fe K-edge. The lattice parameter (LP) obtained from XRD and the presence of an intense pre-edge feature in Fe K-edge XANES confirms the ZB-structure of FeN samples. It was found in this work that the stoichiometric FeN with a LP close to its theoretical value can only be obtained in a narrow temperature regime due to minimization of stresses generated during the growth near the thermodynamic equilibrium conditions. These findings were further validated by EXAFS results yielding Fe–N and Fe–Fe bond distances, in conformity with the theoretically predicted values for FeN in ZB type structure.
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