Temperature dependent exchange anisotropy in single-crystal ferrite thin films (abstract)

Abstract

Single-crystal bilayers of (magnetically soft) (Mn,Zn)Fe2O4 and (magnetically hard) CoFe2O4 can exhibit nearly ideal exchange anisotropy. This is directly related to the extremely high structural quality that can be achieved by epitaxial growth on appropriate substrates. For example, we use (110)-oriented MgAl2O4 substrates with 100 nm CoCr2O4 buffer layers. The paramagnetic buffer layer provides a close lattice match for the ferrites, and is annealed at about 1000 °C to provide excellent crystallinity. Subsequent growth of the ferrite bilayer is executed at 400 °C, which is high enough to permit growth of highly crystalline epitaxial films, yet low enough to avoid substantial intermixing at the interfaces. Measurements at elevated temperatures (290 K<T<1000 K) permit characterization of the exchange anisotropy in regimes of low and moderate crystal anisotropy in the soft layer, as well as directly revealing the blocking temperature and the portion of the overall magnetization contributed by each layer. The results provide additional evidence that the exchange coupling energy across the interface is comparable to that within each layer, and in that sense is nearly ideal. The detailed shapes of the M–H loops are found to be in semiquantitative agreement with micromagnetic theory.