Magnetic properties of hexagonal barium ferrite films on Pt/MgO(111) substrates annealed at different temperatures

•Obvious cation diffusions between the films and substrates are observed by XPS measurements.•Hexagonal ferrites gradually transform into spinel ferrites when the annealing temperatures increase.•Ba-M thin films with the c-axis of grains perpendicular to the film plane have been obtained.

In this work, hexagonal barium ferrite thin films have been deposited on Pt/MgO(111) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The anneal temperature dependence of crystal structures, extents of diffusion and magnetic properties have been studied. X-ray diffraction patterns reveal that the crystal structure changes from the hexagonal to the spinel when the anneal temperature increases. The texture with c-axis perpendicular to the film plane and the small c-axis dispersion angles (△ɵc) have been obtained in the film annealed at 950  °C for 10 h. Both the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy profiles and energy dispersive spectrometer show that the diffusions of Mg2+and Fe3+cations are more obvious when the annealing temperature is higher than 950 °C. The film annealed at 950 °C show anisotropic and hard magnetic properties. The magnetic properties of film annealed at 1050 °C are soft.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideIn order to study the cation diffusions between thin film and substrate, the concentration profiles of cations (Ba2+, Fe3+, Mg2+) have been measured by XPS for a thin film with a thickness of 130 nm annealed at 950°C and 1050°C, as shown in Fig. 3. When Ta is 950°C, as shown in Fig. 3(a), diffusions between the film and the substrate are scarcely detected. However, obvious inter-diffusions have been found for Mg2+ cation and Fe3+ cation when it is annealed at 1050°C. An obvious diffusion has not been found for Ba2+ cation at both annealing temperatures.