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Bulk Single Crystal‐Like Structural and Magnetic Characteristics of Epitaxial Spinel Ferrite Thin Films with Elimination of Antiphase Boundaries
Author(s) -
Singh Amit V.,
Khodadadi Behrouz,
Mohammadi Jamileh Beik,
Keshavarz Sahar,
Mewes Tim,
Negi Devendra Singh,
Datta Ranjan,
Galazka Zbigniew,
Uecker Reinhard,
Gupta Arunava
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201701222
Subject(s) - materials science , spinel , isostructural , lattice constant , thin film , epitaxy , crystal structure , crystallography , pulsed laser deposition , lattice (music) , single crystal , ferrite (magnet) , substrate (aquarium) , diffraction , nanotechnology , metallurgy , composite material , optics , chemistry , physics , layer (electronics) , acoustics , oceanography , geology
Spinel ferrite NiFe 2 O 4 thin films have been grown on three isostructural substrates, MgAl 2 O 4 , MgGa 2 O 4 , and CoGa 2 O 4 using pulsed laser deposition. These substrates have lattice mismatches of 3.1%, 0.8%, and 0.2%, respectively, with NiFe 2 O 4 . As expected, the films grown on MgAl 2 O 4 substrate show the presence of the antiphase boundary defects. However, no antiphase boundaries (APBs) are observed for films grown on near‐lattice‐matched substrates MgGa 2 O 4 and CoGa 2 O 4 . This demonstrates that by using isostructural and lattice‐matched substrates, the formation of APBs can be avoided in NiFe 2 O 4 thin films. Consequently, static and dynamic magnetic properties comparable with the bulk can be realized. Initial results indicate similar improvements in film quality and magnetic properties due to the elimination of APBs in other members of the spinel ferrite family, such as Fe 3 O 4 and CoFe 2 O 4 , which have similar crystallographic structure and lattice constants as NiFe 2 O 4 .