Structural order and magnetic properties of Fe3Si/Si(100) heterostructures grown by pulsed-laser deposition

The single-phase Fe3Si thin films with preferred (220) growth orientation were prepared on Si(100) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. Different states of order were developed by changing the substrate temperature from room temperature to 500 °C. X-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy and macroscopic magnetic measurements were used to analyze changes of structural order and magnetic properties with the substrate temperature. The results show that over the whole range of substrate temperatures considered all films are of Fe3Si single phase, highly oriented along the (220) plane. With increasing the substrate temperature, the structural order type changes from A2 through B2 to DO3 and the order degree gradually increases. Meanwhile, the saturation magnetization remarkably decreases with the increase of the substrate temperature, induced by Si segregation from the substrate and embedment into the film probably as the amorphous phase. The room temperature grown film has a high saturation magnetization of 917 kA m− 1, which nearly equals that of bulk DO3-Fe3Si.