Cation engineering of Cu-ferrite films deposited by alternating target laser ablation deposition

Epitaxial copper ferrite thin films were deposited on MgO substrates by the alternating target laser ablation deposition method. A series of films was studied to explore the impact of oxygen operating pressure, substrate temperature, and the ratio of laser shots incident on each target upon the magnetic, structural, and atomic structural properties. The highest saturation magnetization, 2800 G, was achieved at a 90 mTorr oxygen pressure and at 650 °C for the substrate temperature. This value is 65% higher than the room temperature magnetization for bulk equilibrium samples. The inversion parameter was measured by extended x-ray absorption fine structure analysis. The sample having the highest saturation magnetization had a corresponding inversion parameter percentage of Cu ion octahedral site occupancy of 51.5% compared with the bulk value of 85%. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2837646