Phase separation in Fe_2CrSi thin films

摘要

Thin films of a nominal Fe_2CrSi alloy have been deposited by magnetron co-sputtering with various heat treatments on MgO and MgAl_2O_4 substrates. After heat treatment, the films were found to decompose into a nearly epitaxial Fe_3Si film with the D0_3 structure and Cr_3Si precipitates with the A15 structure. We explain the experimental results on the basis of ab initio calculations, which reveal that this decomposition is energetically highly favorable.