Epitaxial growth of permalloy thin films on MgO single-crystal substrates

Abstract

Permalloy (Py: Ni - 20 at. % Fe) thin films were prepared on MgO single-crystal substrates of (100), (110), and (111) orientations by molecular beam epitaxy. Py crystals consisting of fcc(100) and hcp(1120) orientations epitaxially nucleate on MgO(100) substrates. With increasing the substrate temperature, the volume ratio of fcc(100) to hcp(1120) crystal increases. The metastable hcp(1120) structure transforms into more stable fcc(110) structure with increasing the film thickness. Py(110)fcc single-crystal films are obtained on MgO(110) substrates, whereas Py films epitaxially grow on MgO(111) substrates with two types of fcc(111) variants whose orientations are rotated around the film normal by 180° each other. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that the out-of-plane and the in-plane lattice spacings of these fcc-Py films agree within ±0.4% with the values of bulk fcc-Py crystal, suggesting that the strains in the films are very small. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy shows that periodical misfit dislocations are preferentially introduced in the films around the Py/MgO(100) and the Py/MgO(110) interfaces to reduce the lattice mismatches. The magnetic properties are considered to be reflecting the magnetocrystalline anisotropies of bulk fcc-Py and/or metastable hcp-Py crystals and the shape anisotropy caused by the surface undulations.