Optimized Growth of Heteroepitaxial (111) NiFe₂O₄ Thin Films on (0001) Sapphire with Two In‐Plane Variants via Chemical Solution Deposition

Abstract

(111)-oriented epitaxial thin films of nickel ferrite (NFO) are grown on c-plane sapphire [a-Al 2 O 3 (0001)] substrates using a chemical solution deposition technique. The processing conditions, including pyrolysis and annealing temperatures, are varied to achieve a film that shows maximum texture and epitaxy. It is shown that increasing the pyrolysis temperature to 400°C and decreasing the annealing temperature to 750°C for 10 min result in the highest degree of texture in the films. Lower film thickness also leads to a higher degree of texture. Microstructural studies confirm an in-plane epitaxial relationship between the (111) NFO film and the (0001) Al 2 O 3 substrate in two variants, [110] NFO || ½10 10 Al2O3 or ½1 100 Al2O3 .

Bulk Single Crystal‐Like Structural and Magnetic Characteristics of Epitaxial Spinel Ferrite Thin Films with Elimination of Antiphase Boundaries

“…[5,7] The presence of APBs has also been associated with degraded static and dynamic magnetic properties in spinel ferrites thin films. [1,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Spinel ferrite (e.g., NiFe 2 O 4 , CoFe 2 O 4 , LiFe 5 O 8 ) thin films have recently attracted considerable attention as candidates for microwave integrated devices, [18][19][20] magnetoelectric coupling heterostructures, [21] and as active barrier materials for an emerging class of spintronic devices such as spin filters. [22][23][24][25] Unlike perovskite-based oxides, the choice of lattice-matched substrates for epitaxial growth of spinel ferrite films has thus far been limited.…”

Fabrication and magnetic properties of Sol-Gel derived NiZn ferrite thin films for microwave applications

“…Indeed, high-quality thin films of a variety of ferrites including pure nickel ferrite have been fabricated using spin-coating and dip-coating methods based on organic solvents containing small amounts of water. 23,27,[52][53][54][55] These organic solvents provide improved the substrate wetting, compared with purely aqueous systems. Here, we utilize a propanol solution of dissolved metal precursors to fabricate NZFO thin films and investigate the effect of annealing conditions and composition on the static and dynamic magnetic properties of the films.…”