Growth of sputter-deposited metamagnetic epitaxial Ni-Co-Mn-In films

Metamagnetic thin films represent a promising geometry for more efficient magnetocaloric cooling applications due to a fast heat transfer. Here, we identify suitable growth conditions to obtain epitaxial Ni-Mn-In-Co films with a metamagnetic transition in vicinity of room temperature. We show that both increased substrate temperature and target aging result in loss of indium. This can be attributed to evaporation and preferential sputtering, respectively. We present a model that treats the effect of target aging and temperature dependence of evaporation on the film composition independently and enables predictions of the film composition as a function of initial target composition, target age, and deposition temperature. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that a sufficient degree of chemical B2 order is required for a transformation, in addition to an appropriate film composition.