Producing ZnFe2O4 thin films from ZnO/FeO multilayers

K. L. SALCEDO RODRÍGUEZ; MARTIN HOMANN; FEDERICO GOLMAR; GUSTAVO PASQUEVICH; PETER WERNER; WOLFRAM HERGERT; CLAUDIA E. RODRGUEZ TORRES

APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016 vol. 393 p. 256 - 261

0169-4332

The present work investigates the structural and magnetic properties of ZnFe2O4thin lm obtained from ZnO/FeO multilayers deposited on MgO substrate byDC reactive sputtering. We show that this method is good to grow ecientlyordered ZnFe2O4 lms. The quality of the thin lms is ensured by TEM measurements,which showed a well-ordered lm of ZnFe2O4. The magnetic properties of these thin lms present still minimal dierences when compared to bulk ZnFe2O4 powders. They exhibit a ferromagnetic-like behavior at low temperatures, whereas ZnFe2O4 is expected to be antiferromagnetic. We found that the magnetic signal originated from the lm surface, where cation inversion was visible from grazing incidence x-ray Fluorescence measurements. The inversion of Fe ions with Zn ions caused a magnetic spin glass state, which created then the ferromagnetic-like behavior dierently to bulk ZnFe2O4. These facts point to possible routes in order to improve the growing process of ZnFe2O4 via ZnO/FeO multilayers.