TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gupta, Ranjeeta
A1  - Gupta, Ajay
A1  - Leitenberger, Wolfram
A1  - Rüffer, R.
T1  - Mechanism of stress relaxation in nanocrystalline Fe-N thin films
JF  - Physical review : B, Condensed matter and materials physics
N2  - The mechanism of stress relaxation in nanocrystalline Fe-N thin film has been studied. The as-deposited film possesses a strong in-plane compressive stress which relaxes with thermal annealing. Precise diffusion measurements using nuclear resonance reflectivity show that stress relaxation does not involve any long-range diffusion of Fe atoms. Rather, a redistribution of nitrogen atoms at various interstitial sites, as evidenced by conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy, is responsible for the relaxation of internal stresses. On the other hand, formation of the. gamma'-Fe4N phase at temperatures above 523 K involves long-range rearrangement of Fe atoms. The activation energy for Fe self-diffusion is found to be 0.38 +/- 0.04 eV.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.075401
SN  - 1098-0121
VL  - 85
IS  - 7
PB  - American Physical Society
CY  - College Park
ER  -