Epitaxial Growth of Rare-Earth High Entropy Alloy Thin Films

Epitaxial Growth of Rare-Earth High Entropy Alloy Thin Films

Julian Ledieu, Karine Dumesnil, Mélanie Emo, Sylvie Migot, Sorour Semsari Parapari, Sašo Šturm, Primož Koželj, and Vincent Fournée.

The growth of high entropy alloy (HEA) thin films using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique widen our horizons in materials design. This technique offers a precise control of key parameters (deposition rate, substrate orientation, interfacial or lattice strain) and it becomes possible to study the interplay existing between the elemental choice, their respective stoichiometry and the associated physical and chemical properties. Such a fine-tuning of HEA with an immense compositional space will bring additional advanced materials with exotic properties. Here, we report the epitaxial growth of a rare-earth HEA thin film on a buffer layer of Nb by MBE. The structure and chemistry of the DyGdHoLuTb thin film has been investigated in the bulk and at the surface under ultra high vacuum conditions confirming a random chemical distribution on an ordered hexagonal closed packed structure. We demonstrate how such a heterostructure exhibits magnetic properties that slightly depart from the magnetic phase diagram reported for polycrystalline materials of a similar system.

ACS Nano 2025, 19, 29, 26400–26410

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c02644

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