• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.5-7
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• 2016

We present an experimental investigation of the superconducting transition temperatures, $T_c$, of superconductor/ferromagnet bilayers with varying the thickness of ferromagnetic layer. FeN was used for the ferromagnetic (F) layer, and NbN and Nb were used for the superconducting (S) layer. The results were obtained using three different-thickness series of the S layer of the S/F bilayers: NbN/FeN with NbN thickness, $d_{NbN}{\approx}9.3nm$ and $d_{NbN}{\approx}10nm$, and Nb/FeN with Nb thickness $d_{Nb}{\approx}15nm$. $T_c$ drops sharply with increasing thickness of the ferromagnetic layer, $d_{FeN}$, before maximal suppression of superconductivity at $d_{FeN}{\approx}6.3nm$ for $d_{NbN}{\approx}10nm$ and at $d_{FeN}{\approx}2.5nm$ for $d_{Nb}{\approx}15nm$, respectively. After shallow minimum of $T_c$, a weak $T_c$ oscillation was observed in NbN/FeN bilayers, but it was hardly observable in Nb/FeN bilayers.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.33-36
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• 2016

Suppression of the superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$) of NbN thin films in superconductor/ferromagnet multilayers has been investigated. Both superconducting NbN and ferromagnetic FeN layers were deposited on thermally oxidized Si substrate at room temperature by using reactive magnetron sputtering in an $Ar-N_2$ gas mixture. The thickness of FeN films was fixed at 20 nm, while the thickness of NbN films was varied from 3 nm to 90 nm. $T_c$ suppression was clearly observed in NbN layers up to 70 nm thickness when NbN layer was in proximity with FeN layer. For a given thickness of NbN layer, the magnitude of $T_c$ suppression was increased in the order of Si/FeN/NbN, Si/NbN/FeN, and Si/FeN/NbN/FeN structure. This result can be used to design a spin switch whose operation is based on the proximity effect between superconducting and ferromagnetic layers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.92-96
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• 1986

The $^{93}Nb(n,n\alpha)^{89m}Y$, $^{93}Nb(n,{\alpha})^{90m}Y$ and $^{93}Nb(n,2n)^{92m}Nb$ cross sections at a neutron energy of 14.6 MeV have been measured relative to the $^{27}Al(n,p)^{27}Mg$ and $^{27}Al(n,{\alpha})^{24}Na$ cross sections. A small accelerator utilizing $T(D,n)^4He$ reaction was used as a neutron source and the neutron energy spread is about 0.4MeV at the sample. All induced activities were measured with a 70cc HPGe detector in the same geometry.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.250-257
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• 1997

The microstructure and magnetic properties of Fe-Nb-B-N thin film alloys, which produced by rf magnetron sputtering method in $Ar+N_2$ mixed gas atmosphere, were investigated. The $Fe_{70}Nb_{14}B_{11}N_5$ films, annealed at 59$0^{\circ}C$, exhibit soft magnetic properties: $4{\pi}M_s=16.5kG$ , $H_c=0.13Oe$ and ${\mu}_{eff}$ (1~10 MHz)=5, 000. The frequency stability of the Fe-Nb-B-N films has also been found to be good up to 10 MHz. The Fe-Nb-B-N thin film alloys annealed at 59$0^{\circ}C$ consist of three phase; fine crystalline $\alpha$-Fe phase with grain size of about 5~10 nm, Nb-B rich amorphous phase and Nb-nitride precipitates with the size of less than 3 nm. Annealed Fe-Nb-B films have two phases; $\alpha$-Fe grains with the size of about 10 nm and Nb-B rich amorphous phase. The addition of N decreased $\alpha$-Fe grain size due to the precipitation of NbN. The good magnetic properties of the Fe-Nb-B-N film alloys are due to fine $\alpha$-Fe grains resulting from the precipitation of NbN.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.205-210
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• 2015

NbN coatings were prepared by ICP (inductively coupled plasma) assisted magnetron sputtering from a Nb metal target in $Ar+N_2$ atmosphere at various ICP powers. Effect of ICP on the microstructure, crystalline structure and mechanical properties of NbN coatings was investigated by field emission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and nanoindentation measurements. The results show that ICP power has a significant influence on coating microstructure, structure and mechanical properties of NbN coatings. With the increasing of ICP power, coating microstructure evolves from the columnar structure of DC process to a highly dense one. Crystalline structure of NbN coatings were changed from cubic ${\delta}$-NbN to hexagonal ${\beta}-Nb_2N$ with increase of ICP power. The maximum nano hardness of 25.4 GPa with Ra roughness of 0.5 nm was obtained from the NbN coating sputtered at ICP power of 200 W.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.76-82
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• 2008

The effect of Nb addition on the precipitation and precipitate coarsening behavior was investigated in Ti and Ti + Nb steel weld HAZ. A dilatometer equipped with a He-quenching system was used to simulate the weld thermal cycle. Compared to $TiC_yN_{1-y}$ precipitate in a Ti containing steel, $Ti_xNb_{1-x}C_yN_{1-y}$ complex particle with addition of Nb is precipitated in a Ti + Nb containing steel. Meanwhile, precipitate coarsening occurred more easily in Ti + Nb steel, which may be because the high temperature stability of $Ti_xNb_{1-x}C_yN_{1-y}$ complex particle is deteriorated by the Nb addition.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.136-141
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• 2015

The paper presents the comparative results of NbN coatings deposited by DC and pulsed DC asymmetric bipolar magnetron sputtering systems. The results show that, with the decreasing duty cycle and increasing pulse frequency, the coating morphology changes from a columnar to a dense structure, with finer grains. The Pulsed sputtered NbN coatings showed higher hardness, higher residual stress, and smaller grain sizes than those of DC prepared NbN coatings. Moreover residual stress of pulsed sputtered NbN coatings increased on increasing pulse frequency. Meanwhile, the surface roughness decreased continuously with increasing pulsed DC frequency up to 50 kHz.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.95-104
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• 2011

Ti based nanocomposite films including V, Si and Nb (Ti-Me-N, Me=V, Si and Nb) were fabricated by hybrid physical vapor deposition (PVD) method consisting of unbalanced magnetron (UBM) sputtering and arc ion plating (AIP). The pure Ti target was used for arc ion plating and other metal targets (V, Si and Nb) were used for sputtering process at a gas mixture of Ar/$N_2$ atmosphere. Mostly all of the films were grown with textured TiN (111) plane except the Si doped Ti-Si-N film which has strong (200) peak. The microhardness of each film was measured using the nanoindentation method. The minimum value of removal rate ($0.5{\times}10^{-15}\;m^2/N$) was found at Nb doped Ti-Nb-N film which was composed of Ti-N and Nb-N nanoparticles with small amount of amorphous phases.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.23-26
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• 2017

We have studied magnetic and transport properties of NbN/FeN/Cu/FeN/FeMn spin-valve structure. In-plane magnetic moment exhibited typical hysteresis loops of spin valves in the normal state of NbN film at 20 K. On the other hand, the magnetic hysteresis loop in the superconducting state exhibited more complex behavior in which exchange bias provided by antiferrmagnetic FeMn layer to adjacent FeN layer was disturbed by superconductivity. Because of this, the ideal superconducting spin-valve effect was not detected. Instead the stray field originated from unsaturated magnetic states dominated the transport properties of NbN/FeN/Cu/FeN/FeMn multilayer.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2017

Single phase niobium nitride (NbN) coatings were deposited using asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering by varying pulse frequency and duty cycle of pulsed plasmas. Crystal structure, microstructure, morphology and mechanical properties were examined using XRD, FE-SEM, AFM and nanoindentation. Upon increasing pulse frequencies and decreasing duty cycles, the coating morphology was changed from a pyramidal-shaped columnar structure to a round-shaped dense structure with finer grains. Asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtered NbN coatings deposited at pulse frequency of 25 kHz is characterized by higher hardness up to 17.4 GPa, elastic modulus up to 193.9 GPa, residual compressive stress and a smaller grain size down to 27.5 nm compared with dc sputtered NbN coatings at pulse frequency of 0 kHz. The results suggest that the asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering technique is very beneficial to reactive deposition of transition-metal nitrides such as NbN coatings.