Epitaxial Fe₁₆N₂ films grown by sputtering

We have been able to obtain α]-Fe16N2 films using an underlayer template to induce the epitaxial growth of this metastable phase. They are epitaxial in the (001) direction and show single crystallinity in plane. Furthermore, they are deposited by simple reactive nitrogen sputtering. They have an average magnetic moment of 250 emu/g, considerably larger than the moment (217 emu/g) for pure bcc iron. Conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy gives three hyperfine fields corresponding to three different iron sites, as expected for this structure. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.