Applied Surface Science 318 (2014) 305–308 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Surface Science jou rn al h om ep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/apsusc Use of n-type semiconductor silicon as substrate material for electrodeposition of Zn 1−x Fe x alloy thin films ˙ Ismail ˙ Ilimbey a , Ka˘ gan Yurdal b,∗ , Ömer Faruk Bakkalo˘ glu a , ˙ Ismail Hakkı Karahan b , Metin Bedir a a Department of Engineering Physics, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkiye b Department of Physics, Mustafa Kemal University, Antakya, Hatay, Turkiye a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 31 October 2013 Received in revised form 15 June 2014 Accepted 18 June 2014 Available online 8 July 2014 Keywords: Electrodeposition Zn–Fe alloys Silicon substrate Magnetoresistance Thin film a b s t r a c t Zn 1−x Fe x alloys were electrochemically deposited on semiconductor silicon substrates from sulfate bath. Effect of bath composition on phase formation, chemical composition, crystallite shape, electrical resisti- vity and magnetoresistance were investigated using appropriate characterization tools. It was shown that Zn–Fe alloys can be successfully deposited directly on semiconductor silicon substrate using electrode- position technique. Iron content in films influences crystallite size, resistivity and magnetoresistance of films. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Metallic thin films find important applications in electronics industry. For this reason, deposition of metallic thin films either in the form of pure metals or alloys have gained much importance in the last decades. Type of substrate is important in film fabrication, and many different substrates are being used in thin film fabrica- tion processes. Among these, use of a semiconductor substrate for deposition of metallic films is especially important. Because, this combination of metals and semiconductors gives the possibility of integrating thin film and silicon technologies. By this integra- tion, important structures and devices can be produced, such as ohmic contacts, Schottky barriers, nano-scaled electronic devices, data storage media and spintronic devices. Some examples are as follows: Oskam et al. reported deposition of n-Si/Au Schottky junctions using electrodeposition, which are comparable to ones prepared by evaporation or sputtering [1]. Some other applications include data storage media and spintronic devices. Takahashi et al. reported fabrication of metallic tips with a silicon cantilever and multi-probe with metallic tips for probe-based ferroelectric data storage [2–4]. Sharma et al. reported fabrication of patterned and ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +905327867783. E-mail address: kaganyurdal@hotmail.com (K. Yurdal). non-patterned metallic nanowire arrays on silicon substrate using standard microelectronic fabrication techniques for easy integra- tion of the nanostructures with routine silicon manufacturing [5]. In addition, there are some studies concerning fabrication of films with magnetoresistance on silicon substrate [6,7]. Electrodeposited zinc-alloy coatings, especially with one of the ‘iron group metals’ (e.g. iron, nickel and cobalt) find important end- uses in various industries [8–14]. Another important aspect of the zinc metal is its use in batteries [15]. Phase composition may be complex for Zn–Fe system [16]. Among thin film production techniques, electrodeposition has important advantages; no need for vacuum, deposition at room temperature, ability to use aqueous solutions, control on rate of diffusion and film structure through processing parameters, cost effectiveness, production at large scales etc. The technique is suit- able for fabrication of alloys which show magnetoresistance effect [17–22]. Electrodeposition of zinc alloys with iron group metals may exhibit “anomalous codeposition” which means that zinc is deposited more in the film than its ratio in the solution. Many researches have focused on preparation of these alloys [23–27]. Although Zn–Fe alloys gained attention for their corrosion prop- erties, electrical and magnetic properties of these alloys are also important. These alloys show magnetoresistance effect, amount of which is dependent on the Zn and Fe content. Despite the mag- netoresistance property of Zn–Fe alloys, to our knowledge, these alloys haven’t been yet fabricated on a semiconductor substrate, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2014.06.122 0169-4332/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.