BaFe12O19 thin film grown by an aqueous sol-gel process

In this communication we present a new sol–gel route to obtain high quality BaFe12O19 thin films. X-ray analysis confirmed the crystal structure with a crystal size of 32 nm. Atomic force microscopy images determined the film thickness to be around 250 nm and a roughness factor of less than 40 nm where the grain size averaged around 150 nm. SQUID magnetometer data shows a magnetic behavior similar to films grown by other techniques, namely, a coercive field ðHc 1⁄4 4 kOeÞ; a normalized remanence close to 0.6 and saturation field of 15 kOe and Ms 1⁄4 80 emu=cm: q 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.