Microstructure and Texture of Yttrium-Nickel-Borocarbide and Samarium-Cobalt Thin Films

The goal of this thesis is to study the microstrucutre and texture of Yttrium-Nickel- Borocarbide and Samarium-Cobalt thin film heterostructures prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition and to establish structure-property relations for these materials in order to improve their properties and design new structures. Coincidence site lattice epitaxy was explored in most of these heterostructures (substrate, buffer and film) and studied in detail for each case. Epitaxial thin films of the superconducting borocarbide compound YNi2B2C were grown on single crystal MgO (100) substrates without and with Y2O3 buffer layer using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). In both cases YNi2B2C grows with [001] normal to the substrate. However, the in-plane texture depends on the starting condition. For samples without buffer layer, oxygen from the substrate diffuses into the film and forms an Y2O3 reaction layer at the interface. As a consequence, a deficiency of Y is generated giving rise to the formation of secondary phases. On the other hand, using an artificial Y2O3 buffer layer secondary phases are suppressed. The texture of the Y2O3 layers determines the texture of the YNi2B2C film. The superconducting properties of the borocarbide films are discussed with respect to texture and phase purity. To prevent the formation of an impurity phase at the interface, it was the aim of this preliminary investigation to study YNi2B2C films deposited onto single crystal MgO (100) substrates with an Ir buffer layer. The Ir buffer layer shows a strong cube-on-cube texture onto MgO(100) and also prevents the formation of an Y2O3 interlayer. However, during deposition of YNi2B2C the buffer layer disappears by Ir diffusion into the borocarbide film. The YNi2B2C film exhibits a c-axis texture consisting of four components. As a consequence of these effects, the superconducting transition Tc90 equals up to 13K, but with a transition width of 4K. In the second part of this work, hard magnetic Sm-Co/Cr films were epitaxially grown on MgO(100) and (110) substrates. They were characterized by X-ray pole figure measurements and transmission electron microscopy. For films deposited on MgO(100) at 700ºC, orientations are found with the c-axis aligned in-plane and out-of-plane. By lowering the deposition temperature to 370ºC, the out-of-plane orientations disappeared. Further lowering to 350ºC leads to the formation of amorphous regions in the SmCo5 film. For films grown on MgO(110) the Cr buffer deposition temperature plays an important role. When deposited at 700°C Cr(211) and (100) growth is observed leading to two different types of SmCo5 in-plane orientations. By lowering the Cr-buffer deposition temperature to 300ºC only one buffer and one SmCo5 orientation exists: Cr(-211)[0-11] and SmCo5(10-10)[0001]. The exact orientation relationships between substrate, buffer and films are explained and their correlation with magnetic properties are discussed