Epitaxial growth of the CoFe2O4 film on SrTiO3 and its characterization

• Published in: Journal of crystal growth 2007-03, Vol.300 (2), p.426-430
• Main Authors: HUANG, W, ZHOU, L. X, ZENG, H. Z, WEI, X. H, ZHU, J, ZHANG, Y, LI, Y. R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Ferrimagnetics; Growth from solutions; Magnetic properties; Magnetic properties and materials; Materials science; Methods of crystal growth; physics of crystal growth; Physics; Properties of type I and type II superconductors; Studies of specific magnetic materials; Superconductivity
• ISSN: 0022-0248; 1873-5002
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2007.01.004

Cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) thin film is epitaxially grown on (001) SrTiO3 (STO) by laser molecular beam epitaxy (LMBE). The growth modes of CoFe2O4 (CFO) film are found to be sensitive to laser repetition, the transitions from layer-by-layer mode to Stranski-Krastanov (SK) mode and then to island mode occur at the laser repetition of 3 and 5Hz at 700 deg C, respectively. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that the CFO film on (001) SrTiO3 is compressively strained by the underlying substrate and exhibits high crystallinity with a full-width at half-maximum of 0.86 deg . Microstructural studies indicate that the as-deposited CFO film is c-oriented island structure with rough surface morphology and the magnetic measurements reveal that the compressive strained CoFe2O4 film exhibits an enhanced out-of-plane magnetization (190emu/cm3) with a large coercivity (3.8kOe).