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Magnetic property tuning of epitaxial spinel ferrite thin films by strain and composition modulation

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Abstract

Epitaxial spinel ferrite CoFe2O4 and NiFe2O4 thin films and bilayers of NiFe2O4 and CoFe2O4 have been grown by pulsed laser deposition on (001)-oriented SrTiO3 and MgO substrates. Both the single layer thin films showed epitaxial growth on MgO substrates with out-of-plane magnetic easy axis, originating from the out-of-plane compressive strain and negative magnetostriction constant. However, films on SrTiO3 substrates exhibited a magnetic easy axis along the in-plane. Magnetic hysteresis loops showed intermediate shape between magnetically hard CoFe2O4 and magnetically soft NiFe2O4 without two-step switching. Interdiffusion between spinel phases was suppressed using a blocking layer of MgO.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by 2017 Research Fund of Myongji University and Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2015R1C1A1A01051656).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation, Chungju, Republic of Korea

    Young-Min Kang

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Myongji University, Yongin, Republic of Korea

    Seung Han Lee, Tae Cheol Kim, Jaeeun Jeong & Dong Hun Kim

  3. Samsung Electronics, Yongin, 466-712, Republic of Korea

    Daejin Yang

  4. Icheon Branch, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology, Icheon, Republic of Korea

    Kyu-Sung Han

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  1. Young-Min Kang
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Correspondence to Dong Hun Kim.

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Kang, YM., Lee, S.H., Kim, T.C. et al. Magnetic property tuning of epitaxial spinel ferrite thin films by strain and composition modulation. Appl. Phys. A 123, 648 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1259-9

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