TEM observation of nitrogen-tunable bcc–bct–fcc transformation of iron-cobalt with added vanadium

We used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe tunable bcc–bct–fcc transformation of FeCo films caused by the addition of auxiliary elements. The crystal structure of the FeCo with added V was bcc, and the transformation of the bcc structure through the bct to fcc was found to depend on the N content (x). TEM observation revealed that bct structure with c/a = 1.12 was obtained for x = 1.7 atomic%, while fcc structure with c/a = 2 was obtained for x = 9.6 atomic%. The c/a-values depended on x, so the bcc–bct–fcc transformation of the FeCoV was tunable by N content. This research was made possible by special preventative measures taken during preparation to avoid compressive stress, which could otherwise induce the bct FeCo lattice of axial ratio c/a > 1.00 to transform to bcc structure. A FeCo coating of thickness 20 nm was therefore deposited directly on a MgO substrate without any other metallic layers.