Surface, structural and cryogenic magnetic studies of Cu, Co substituted NiFe2O4 thin films grown on Si substrate

Abstract

Silicon (Si) is the most commonly used substrate material for fabricating integrated circuit; Si has very little fatigue effect. In the present work we developed pure NiFe2O4 and Cu, Co substituted NiFe2O4 thin films on Si substrate by metallo-organic decomposition (MOD) method using spin coating technique. The prepared thin films were characterized by XRD and Raman spectrometer for structural and phase identification. The topography and grain distribution of the prepared samples were analyzed by atomic force microscope (AFM). Magnetic hysteresis loops were measured at 10 K and 300 K using Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The magnetization and coercive field increased with Cu, Co substitution. Temperature dependent magnetization (M-T) was carried out by zero-field cooled (ZFC) and field – cooled (FC) method. ZFC measurements revels that blocking temperature of the thin films is above 350 K.