Growth of magnetic cobalt ferrite thin film by sol-gel

Abstract

Due to the distinctive properties and its applications in magnetic technology, cobalt ferrite thin films were fabricated by sol-gel method on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate. Effect of annealing temperature, viscosity and Co2+ content on magnetic properties were investigated. Crystallographic structures and magnetic properties of the films have been analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) respectively. It was shown that thin films heat treated at high temperature under appropriate viscosity have high saturation magnetization and remarkable coercivity. Also, thin film prepared from solutions with different Co2+ content contributed to non-stoichiometric cobalt ferrite, where cobalt rich species have higher Ms, but lower Hc. In conclusion, although sol-gel processing has a lot of variations and chemically unstable, its advantages of lower processing temperature, better morphology control and cost efficient have served as irresistible reasons to widely apply it in cobalt ferrite thin film fabrication.