Influence of film composition on the transition temperature of FeRh films

We investigate the influences of film composition, tuned by argon growth pressure and palladium doping, on antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic transition temperatures of FeRh films. Employing complementary characterizations we show that the CsCI-type FeRh grows on MgO (100) substrate epitaxially with a controllable transition temperature. Lower argon pressure, a suitable palladium doping are found to effectively decrease the transition temperature. In addition, the exploration about the influence of post-annealing time on un-doped FeRh films indicates that annealing procedure is helpful to improve the growth quality. The optimized growth parameter provides an opportunity to deposit ultrathin FeRh films (5 nm) with a clear antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic transition. The manipulation of the transition temperature of FeRh would advance its use in antiferromagnetic spintronics. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.