Ultra large coercivity in barium ferrite thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering

Hexagonal barium ferrites were deposited onto sapphire substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The composition, microstructure, and magnetic properties of these isotropic thin films were investigated with Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, magnetic force microscopy and SQUID magnetometry. The intrinsic coercivity of the films reaches about 11.5 kOe at room temperature. The mechanism of the coercivity is proposed to be nucleation in the decoupled single domain nanometer particles as shown by the characteristics of the magnetic domains and the virgin magnetization curves.