Effect of Temperature on Structural and Magnetic Properties of Laser Ablated Iron Oxide Deposited on Si(100)

Abstract

We fabricate Fe3O4 thin films on Si(100) substrates at different temperatures using pulsed laser deposition, and study the effect of annealing and deposition temperature on the structural and magnetic properties of Fe3O4 thin films. Subsequently, the films are characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometery (VSM). The XRD results of these films confirm the presence of the Fe3O4 phase and show room-temperature ferromagnetism, as observed with VSM. We demonstrate the optimized deposition and annealing conditions for an enhanced magnetization of 854 emu/cm(3) that is very high when compared to the bulk sample.