Abstract
ZnFe2O4 (ZFO) thin films exhibiting varying crystallographic features ((222)-epitaxially, (400)-epitaxially, and randomly oriented films) were grown on various substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. The type of substrate used profoundly affected the surface topography of the resulting ZFO films. The surface of the ZFO (222) epilayer was dense and exhibited small rectangular surface grains; however, the ZFO (400) epilayer exhibited small grooves. The surface of the randomly oriented ZFO thin film exhibited distinct three-dimensional island-like grains that demonstrated considerable surface roughness. Magnetization-temperature curves revealed that the ZFO thin films exhibited a spin-glass transition temperature of approximately 40 K. The crystallographic orientation of the ZFO thin films strongly affected magnetic anisotropy. The ZFO (222) epitaxy exhibited the strongest magnetic anisotropy, whereas the randomly oriented ZFO thin film exhibited no clear magnetic anisotropy.
Highlights
Spinel-structured ferrite oxides have been intensively investigated because of their versatile physical and chemical properties as well as technological applications in magnetic sensors, biosensors, and photocatalysts [1,2]
The sputtering ceramic target adopted in the experiment was prepared by mixing the precursor oxide powders of ZnO and Fe2O3 to obtain a proportion of Fe/Zn = 2, pressing the powders into a pellet, and sintering the pellet at a high temperature to achieve a high density
ZFO spinel thin films exhibiting epitaxially and randomly oriented crystallographic features were grown on various substrates by RF magnetron sputtering at 650°C
Summary
Spinel-structured ferrite oxides have been intensively investigated because of their versatile physical and chemical properties as well as technological applications in magnetic sensors, biosensors, and photocatalysts [1,2]. ZnFe2O4 (ZFO) is one of the major ferrite oxides with a spinel structure, and it has remarkable magnetic and electromagnetic properties regarding its state of chemical order and cation site occupancy in lattices [3]. It is a semiconductor, processes light response, has photochemical characteristics, and can be used as a material for supercapacitors [4,5]. ZFO in thin-film form is promising and is compatible in the fabrication of devices with Si feature-dependent properties of sputtering-deposited spinel ZFO thin films are still inadequate. The correlation between the crystallographic features and the characterization of the ZFO thin films was investigated
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