Abstract
We report here on the growth of NiFe 2O 4 epitaxial thin films of different thickness (3 nm ≤ t ≤ 32 nm) on single crystalline substrates having spinel (MgAl 2O 4) or perovskite (SrTiO 3) structure. Ultrathin films, grown on any of those substrates, display a huge enhancement of the saturation magnetization: we will show that partial cationic inversion may account for this enhancement, although we will argue that suppression of antiparallel collinear spin alignment due to size-effects cannot be excluded. Besides, for thicker films, the magnetization of films on MAO is found to be similar to that of bulk ferrite; in contrast, the magnetization of films on STO is substantially lower than bulk. We discuss on the possible mechanisms leading to this remarkable difference of magnetization.
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