Growth modes and epitaxy of FeAl thin films on a-cut sapphire prepared by pulsed laser and ion beam assisted deposition.

FeAl films around equiatomic composition are grown on a-cut (1120) sapphire substrates by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at ambient temperature. Subsequent successive annealing is used to establish chemical order and crystallographic orientation of the films with respect to the substrate. We find a strongly [110]-textured growth for both deposition techniques. Pole figures prove the successful preparation of high quality epitaxial films by PLD with a single in-plane orientation. IBAD-grown films, however, exhibit three in-plane orientations, all of them with broad angular distributions. The difference of the two growth modes is attributed to the existence of a metastable intermediate crystalline orientation as concluded from nonassisted sputter depositions at different substrate temperatures. The formation of the chemically ordered crystalline B2 phase is accompanied by the expected transition from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic behavior of the films. In accordance with the different thermally induced structural recovery, we find a step-like magnetic transition to paramagnetic behavior after annealing for 1 h at TA = 300 °C for IBAD deposition, while PLD-grown films show a gradual decrease of ferromagnetic signals with rising annealing temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]