Synthesis and characteristics of nanocrystalline Co/N thin film containing Co4N phase

Nanocrystalline Co/N thin film containing Co4N phase has been deposited on Si (1 1 1) substrate by direct current magnetron sputtering in 10% N2/N2 + Ar discharge. The composition, structure and magnetic properties were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and superconducting quantum interference device. XRD and TEM investigations showed that the grain size of nanocrystalline Co4N was in the range 10–25 nm (with the error of ±0.2 nm). Magnetic analysis indicated that the synthesized Co/N thin films had good in-plane anisotropy. The value of Hc with the domination orientation (1 1 1) was about 97 Oe. The saturation magnetization was estimated to be 103.9 ± 6.1 emu/g, which was larger than the value of 46.5 emu/g firstly reported by Oda et al.