Effect of Oxygen Vacancies and Cationic Inversion on Magnetic Properties of Pulsed Laser Deposited Zinc Ferrite Thin Films

This article studied the effect of oxygen vacancies and cationic inversion on the magnetic properties of zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4, ZFO) thin films. The ZFO thin films were deposited using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at three different oxygen partial pressures (Po-2), viz., 0.16, 0.24, and 0.32 mbar at 800 degrees C substrate temperature on Si(100) substrate. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the pure phase formation of the synthesized zinc ferrite thin films. The saturation magnetization (M-s), as estimated using magnetization (M) versus applied magnetic field (H) hysteresis loop of ZFO thin films, was decreased with increasing oxygen partial pressures. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis for O 1 s and Zn 2p element in ZnFe2O4 thin films, with high lattice oxygen ratio, i.e., O-II/O-I of 1.88 and lowest inversion degree (i.e., sigma =0.41), suggested the presence of maximum oxygen vacancies for the films grown at 0.16 mbar leading to the high value of magnetization (134 emu/cc).

Automated summary

This article investigates the influence of oxygen vacancies and cationic inversion on the magnetic properties of zinc ferrite thin films. The results demonstrate that the saturation magnetization decreases as the oxygen partial pressure increases. Additionally, it is observed that the film grown at 0.16 mbar exhibits the highest magnetization, indicating the presence of the maximum oxygen vacancies.