Anomalous Hall effect of facing-target sputtered Fe3SnN epitaxial film

In this work, polycrystalline iron tin nitride films on different substrates with various nitrogen flow rates were deposited using the facing-target reactive sputtering method. Fe3SnN(111) epitaxial films were fabricated on both Al2O3(0001) and MgO(111) with two standard cubic centimeter per minute N-2. The structures, electronic transport and magnetic properties were investigated systematically. The signs of the Hall resistivity slope in a high-field region are reversed when the temperature increases above 50 K, which suggests a temperature-induced transition of charge carriers from electron to hole. The longitudinal resistivity of films indicates metallic conductance mechanism. Different scaling laws were used to distinguish the physical mechanism underlying the observed anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in 60 nm thick Fe3SnN(111) epitaxial film. The skew scattering mechanism is demonstrated to play a dominant role in the AHE. This work not only offers a clear understanding of polycrystalline iron tin nitride films, but also contributes to the fabrication and applications of Fe3SnN(111) epitaxial films in spintronics.

Automated summary

Polycrystalline iron tin nitride films were deposited on different substrates with various nitrogen flow rates using the facing-target reactive sputtering method. Epitaxial Fe3SnN(111) films were successfully fabricated on Al2O3(0001) and MgO(111) with a nitrogen flow rate of two standard cubic centimeter per minute. The structures, electronic transport, and magnetic properties were systematically investigated. The temperature-induced transition of charge carriers from electron to hole was observed and the skew scattering mechanism was found to dominate the anomalous Hall effect in the Fe3SnN(111) epitaxial film.