Ferromagnetic CrSb thicker films epitaxially grown on NaCl (1 0 0) substrates

A series of relatively thicker CrSb films were deposited on NaCl (1 0 0) substrates by magnetron sputtering. Strong ferromagnetism was observed in the CrSb films with a zinc-blende CrSb (ZB-CrSb) phase epitaxially grown on the NaCl sustrate. The critical thickness of the ZB-CrSb film was close to 4 nm, which is sufficiently thick to investigate the half-metallicity nature of ZB-CrSb and to be practically applied in spintronics devices.