As-grown enhancement of spinodal decomposition in spinel cobalt ferrite thin films by Dynamic Aurora pulsed laser deposition

•As-grown enhancement of spinodal decomposition (SD) in CoxFe3−xO4 film is observed.•Magnetic-field-induced ion-impingement enhances SD without any post-annealing.•The enhancement of SD is independent of the lattice-mismatch-induced strain.•This approach can promote SD in any thin film without post-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of magnetism and magnetic materials 2017-06, Vol.432, p.391-395
Main Authors: Debnath, Nipa, Kawaguchi, Takahiko, Kumasaka, Wataru, Das, Harinarayan, Shinozaki, Kazuo, Sakamoto, Naonori, Suzuki, Hisao, Wakiya, Naoki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Annealing
Cobalt
Cobalt ferrite thin film
Cobalt ferrites
Diffraction patterns
Dynamic Aurora PLD
Ferrites
Impingement
Iron
Magnetic fields
Microstructure
Miscibility
Miscibility gap
Phase separation
Pulsed laser deposition
Spinel
Spinodal decomposition
Thin films
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Summary:•As-grown enhancement of spinodal decomposition (SD) in CoxFe3−xO4 film is observed.•Magnetic-field-induced ion-impingement enhances SD without any post-annealing.•The enhancement of SD is independent of the lattice-mismatch-induced strain.•This approach can promote SD in any thin film without post-deposition annealing. Cobalt ferrite CoxFe3−xO4 thin films with composition within the miscibility gap were grown using Dynamic Aurora pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction patterns reveal as-grown phase separation to Fe-rich and Co-rich phases with no post-deposition annealing. The interconnected surface microstructure of thin film shows that this phase separation occurs through spinodal decomposition enhanced by magnetic-field-induced ion-impingement. The lattice parameter variation of the thin films with the magnetic field indicates that the composition fluctuations can be enhanced further by increasing the magnetic field. Results show that spinodal decomposition enhancement by magnetic-field-induced ion-impingement is independent of the lattice-mismatch-induced strain. This approach can promote spinodal decomposition in any thin film with no post-deposition annealing process.
ISSN:0304-8853
1873-4766
DOI:10.1016/j.jmmm.2017.02.023