The hexaferrite Sr3Co2Fe24O41 thin films by chemical solution deposition method: Synthesis and characterization

Thin films of Sr3Co2Fe24O41 hexaferrite were prepared through the chemical solution deposition method using SrTiO3(1 1 1) single crystal substrates. The influence of the annealing temperature and annealing duration time on the phase composition, structural, microstructural and magnetic properties was investigated by examining the out- and in-plane crystallographic orientation, temperature and magnetic-field dependence of the magnetization, and surface topography. The Rietveld analysis performed on the XRD patterns indicates Sr3Co2Fe24O41 being the dominant phase, according to the XRD texture analysis the orientation relationship between Z ferrite and substrate can be expressed as (0 0 l)Z || (1 1 1)STO || and [1 1 0]Z || [1 0 0]STO. The magnetization data show anomalies in the magnetic behavior occurring at temperatures close to the room temperature that are characteristic for collinear to non-collinear spin structure transitions. The magnetic-field dependence of the magnetization proves soft magnetic character of ferrite film together with pronounced magnetic anisotropy, and shows a two-step increase of magnetization at lower fields (≤1 T) before it becomes almost saturated at around 2 T.