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Though tungsten trioxide (WO3) in bulk, nanosphere, and thin film samples has been extensively studied, few studies have been dedicated to the crystallographic structure of WO3 thin films. In this work, the evolution from amorphous WO3 thin films to crystalline WO3 thin films is discussed. WO3 thin films were fabricated on silicon substrates (Si/SiO2) by RF reactive magnetron sputtering. Once a thin film was deposited, two successive annealing treatments were made: an initial annealing at 400 °C for 6 h was followed by a second annealing at 350 °C for 1 h. Film characterization was carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution electron transmission microscopy (HRTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The β-WO3 final phase grew in form of columnar crystals and its growth plane was determined by HRTEM.

Magnetocaloric materials with second order phase transition near the Curie temperature can be described by critical phenomena theory. In this theory, scaling, universality, and renormalization are key concepts from which several phase transition order criteria are derived. In this work, the rescaled universal curve, Banerjee and mean field theory criteria were used to make a comparison for several magnetocaloric materials including pure Gd, SmCo1.8Fe0.2, MnFeP0.46As0.54, and La0.7Ca0.15Sr0.15MnO3. Pure Gd, SmCo1.8Fe0.2, and La0.7Ca0.15Sr0.15MnO3 present a collapse of the rescaled magnetic entropy change curves into a universal curve, which indicates a second order phase transition; applying Banerjee criterion to H/σ vs σ2 Arrot plots and the mean field theory relation |ΔSM| ∝ (μ0H/Tc)2/3 for the same materials also determines a second order phase transition. However, in the MnFeP0.46As0.54 sample, the Banerjee criterion applied to the H/σ vs σ2 Arrot plot indicates a first order magnetic phase transition, while the mean field theory prediction for a second order phase transition, |ΔSM| ∝ (μ0H/Tc)2/3, describes a second order behavior. Also, a mixture of first and second order behavior was indicated by the rescaled universal curve criterion. The diverse results obtained for each criterion in MnFeP0.46As0.54 are apparently related to the magnetoelastic effect and to the simultaneous presence of weak and strong magnetism in Fe (3f) and Mn (3g) alternate atomic layers, respectively. The simultaneous application of the universal curve, the Banerjee and the mean field theory criteria has allowed a better understanding about the nature of the order of the phase transitions in different magnetocaloric materials.