Abstract

We report results on epitaxial magnetite (Fe 3O 4) thin films grown by electron beam ablation on (1 0 0) MgAl 2O 4 substrates. At 120 K magnetite undergoes a structural and electronic transition, the so-called Verwey transition, at which magnetic and conducting properties of the material change. We observed the Verwey transition on epitaxial films with a thickness of 50 nm by comparing zero-field cooling (ZFC) and field cooling (FC) curves measured with a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer. Observation of the Verwey transition by SQUID measurements in the films is sign of their high crystalline quality. Room temperature ferromagnetism has also been found by magneto-optical Kerr rotation (MOKE) and confirmed by SQUID measurements, with a hysteresis loop showing a coercive field of hundreds of Oe.

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