The Structural and Optical Properties of Nanocrystalline Fe3O4 Thin Films Prepared by PLD

Abstract

In this study, thin films of pure iron oxide (Fe3O4) were prepared using pulsedlaser deposition technique under vacuum (2×10-3 mbar) using Nd: YAG laser atdifferent laser energies (700, 800, 900, and 1000 mJ) on quartz slides at thesubstrate temperature of 200 °C with different thickness (170,190, 220, and 250nm). The prepared thin films were examined using different techniques. The Xray diffraction showed a polycrystalline structure of cubic Fe3O4 phase, enhancedits crystallinity, and increased the crystalline size when increasing the laser energyto 1000 mJ. The results revealed that high transparency samples decreased pulselaser energy. As the laser pulse power increases, the transparency decreases from91% to 61%, where optical properties deteriorate significantly. The bandgapvalues were detected to be 3.9 eV, 3.75 eV, 3.21 eV, and 3 eV when the laserenergies were increased with thickness (170– 250) nm. In addition, the extinctioncoefficient, dielectric constants, optical constants, and refractive constants werestudied