Epitaxial growth and properties of GdN, EuN and SmN thin films

This paper contains a summary of selected aspects of the epitaxial growth of rare-earth nitride thin films and the recent progress achieved in this field. The discussion is focussed on GdN, SmN, EuN compounds grown by both pulsed laser deposition and molecular beam epitaxy on different substrates including YSZ (001), c-plane (0001) AlN and GaN. While a N-2 plasma cell is used as a nitrogen source for growing EuN, we take advantage of the catalytic breakdown of molecular nitrogen by rare-earth atoms to grow GdN and SmN in the absence of activated N-2. The structural, magnetic and transport properties of the thin films are assessed by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, x-ray diffraction, Hall Effect, temperature-dependent magnetization and resistivity. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim