Preparation and microstructures of FeSiBNbCu thin films

We have prepared FeSiBNbCu thin films by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering and investigated the influence of the sputtering power on the microstructures of FeSiBNbCu thin films through analyzing their microstructural configurations by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The results showed that FeSiBNbCu thin films were amorphous when deposited with low sputtering power density and exhibited the mixed structure of crystalline and amorphous components with increasing the sputtering power density, without any heat treatment. The crystallites contained nanosized α-Fe(Si) and α-Fe(B) solid solutions of which the volume fractions and the microstructural configurations changed with the sputtering power.