Room temperature growth of half-metallic Fe3O4 thin films on polycarbonate by reactive sputtering: Heterostructures for flexible spintronics

Nowadays, there is a huge demand of bendable/stretchable electronic devices because of their remarkable capabilities. With such an aim and inclination towards flexible spintronics devices, halfmetallic nanocrystalline Fe3O4 thin films with various thicknesses are grown on flexible polycarbonate (PC) substrates by reactive sputtering at room temperature. The structural analysis reveals that as the deposition time increases from similar to 165 s to similar to 1335 s, the thickness of the film also increases from 50 nm to 400 nm with the size of the grain from similar to 12 nm to similar to 32 nm, respectively. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) shows that the films grown on PC substrates are the pure form of Fe3O4 nanostructures. The electrical and magnetic characteristics are studied to illustrate the furtherance of the original belongings of Fe3O4. The Verwey transition temperature (T-v) of similar to 127 K, M-s value of similar to 317 emu/cm(3) and MR -8.3% under H parallel to Film plane below 60 kOe at 300 K for 200 nm thick Fe3O4 film on PC substrate were observed. Additionally, several bending experiments are executed to confirm the retention and adjustability of these properties for such heterostructures. These remarkable results show that Fe3O4/PC heterostructures can be a promising applicant for flexible spintronics. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.