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Epitaxial YbN thin films grown by nitrogen plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Y. Chen1,2, A. Meléndez-Sans1, S. Kimura2,3,4, L. H. Tjeng1, and S. G. Altendorf1

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Phys. Rev. Materials 9, 123403 – Published 24 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/chf5-cc7n

Abstract

We report the successful growth of stoichiometric, epitaxial ytterbium nitride (YbN) thin films via molecular beam epitaxy under ultrahigh vacuum conditions using activated nitrogen supplied by a plasma source. Through systematic optimization of the growth parameters, we achieved high-quality YbN films with excellent crystallinity and a well-defined (100) out-of-plane orientation on MgO(100) and LaAlO3(100) substrates, as determined by in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction and ex situ x-ray diffraction. In situ photoelectron spectroscopy results unambiguously demonstrate the semiconducting character of YbN and the fully trivalent valence state of the Yb ions. Using the photon-energy dependence of the valence band spectra we were able to reveal a significant hybridization between the Yb4f and N2p states.

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Phys. Rev. Materials 9, 123403– Published 24 December, 2025
  • Received 30 October 2025
  • Accepted 3 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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