A novel wear-resistant magnetic thin film material based on a $Ti_{1-x}Fe_xC_{1-y}$ nanocomposite alloy

TL;DR

This paper reports on the development of a wear-resistant magnetic Ti-Fe-C thin film, demonstrating how annealing induces controlled phase changes and nano-crystalline iron formation, combining experimental and theoretical insights.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Ti-Fe-C nanocomposite alloy with tunable magnetic and wear-resistant properties through annealing, supported by DFT calculations and microscopy analysis.

Findings

Annealing causes phase segregation and iron-rich region formation.

Magnetic ordering temperature increases with Fe and C-vacancy concentration.

Nano-crystalline iron precipitates can be controlled by annealing time.

Abstract

In this study we report on the film growth and characterization of thin (approximately 50 nm thick) Ti-Fe-C films deposited on amorphous quartz. The experimental studies have been complemented by first principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Upon annealing of as-prepared films, the composition of the metastable Ti-Fe-C film changes. An iron-rich phase is first formed close to the film surface, but with increasing annealing time this phase is gradually displaced toward the film-substrate interface where its position stabilizes. Both the magnetic ordering temperature and the saturation magnetization changes significantly upon annealing. The DFT calculations show that the critical temperature and the magnetic moment both increase with increasing Fe and C-vacancy concentration. The formation of the metastable iron-rich Ti-Fe-C compound is reflected in the strong increase of the magnetic ordering temperature. Eventually, after enough annealing time ($\geq 10$ minutes), nano-crystalline $\alpha$-Fe starts to precipitate and the amount and size of these precipitates can be controlled by the annealing procedure; after 20 minutes of annealing, the experimental results indicate a nano-crystalline iron-film embedded in a wear resistant TiC compound. This conclusion is further supported by transmission electron microscopy studies on epitaxial Ti-Fe-C films deposited on single crystalline MgO substrates where, upon annealing, an iron film embedded in TiC is formed. Our results suggest that annealing of metastable Ti-Fe-C films can be used as an efficient way of creating a wear-resistant magnetic thin film material.