The optical, magnetooptical, and magnetic properties of polycrystalline (Fe5Si3/SiO2/Si(100)) and epitaxial Fe3Si/Si(111) films are investigated by spectral magnetoellipsometry. The dispersion of the...

The growth and phase formation features, along with the influence of structure and morphology on the electronic, optical, and transport properties of Cr₂GeC and Cr_2-xMn_xGeC MAX phase thin films synthesized by magnetron sputtering technique, were studied. It was found that the Cr:Ge:C atomic ratios most likely play the main role in the formation of a thin film of the MAX phase. A slight excess of carbon and manganese doping significantly improved the phase composition of the films. Cr₂GeC films with a thicknesses exceeding 40 nm consisted of crystallites with well-developed facets, exhibiting metallic optical and transport properties. The hopping conduction observed in the Cr_2-xMn_xGeC film could be attributed to the columnar form of crystallites. Calculations based on a two-band model indicated high carrier concentrations N, P and mobility μ in the best-synthesized Cr₂GeC film, suggesting transport properties close to single crystal material. The findings of this study can be utilized to enhance the growth technology of MAX phase thin films.

A thin polycrystalline Fe film on a single-crystal Si substrate with natural SiO2oxide is obtained by thermal evaporation in ultrahigh vacuum. The magneto-optical properties of the resultant...

It is known from experimental studies that the components of the permittivity tensor ε depend on layer thicknesses of multilayer thin films, and for nanometer layers, it is necessary to additionally consider the interlayer interfaces. This study provides an answer to the question of what is the reason for the influence of these interfaces on film properties. It is shown that the contribution of interband matrix elements for ferromagnetic films with off-diagonal components of the permittivity tensor determines the ratio between the diagonal and off-diagonal components of the tensor ε at a ferromagnetic layer thickness of about 10 nm.

We have shown a novel method for the synthesis of iron silicide nanoparticles on a water-soluble NaCl substrate using thermal layer-by-layer deposition of Fe–Si and post-annealing in ultra-high vacuum. The crystal structure, morphology and optical properties of highly dispersed Fe–Si-containing thin films have been studied. As a result, Fe₃Si nanoparticles were found to spontaneously form on the surface of salt with an excess of iron in a wide stoichiometric range. We propose a simple method to control the geometric shape of synthesized Fe–Si ferromagnetic nanoparticles by preparation of NaCl surface.