Hydrothermal growth of ferromagnetic Fe-doped TiO2 films

Polycrystalline Fe-doped TiO2 anatase films were deposited on (001) oriented SrTiO3 single crystal substrates at temperatures less than 200 °C from acidic aqueous solutions of titanyl sulfate and iron (III) nitrate. Epitaxial anatase TiO2 films were obtained when the films were annealed in air at 900 °C. Room-temperature ferromagnetic Fe-doped TiO2 thin films were obtained after repeated deposition and annealing steps. The observed saturation magnetization (>0.28μB/Fe) could not be attributed to the presence of secondary phase magnetic iron oxides or iron clusters.