Tuning of the Titanium Oxide Surface to Control Magnetic Properties of Thin Iron Films

We describe the magnetic properties of thin iron films deposited on the nanoporous titanium oxide templates and analyze their dependance on nanopore radius. We then compare the results to a continuous iron film of the same thickness. Additionally, we investigate the evolution of the magnetic properties of these films after annealing. We demonstrate that the M(H) loops consist of two magnetic phases originating from the iron layer and iron oxides formed at the titanium oxide/iron interface. We perform deconvolution of hysteresis loops to extract information for each magnetic phase. Finally, we investigate the magnetic interactions between the phases and verify the presence of exchange coupling between them. We observe the altering of the magnetic properties by the nanopores as a magnetic hardening of the magnetic material. The ZFC-FC (Zero-field cooled/field cooled) measurements indicate the presence of a disordered glass state below 50 K, which can be explained by the formation of iron oxide at the titanium oxide-iron interface with a short-range magnetic order.

Automated summary

We study the magnetic properties of thin iron films on nanoporous titanium oxide templates and analyze their dependence on nanopore radius. We compare these results with a continuous iron film of the same thickness and investigate the evolution of magnetic properties after annealing. We find that the M(H) loops of the films consist of two magnetic phases from the iron layer and iron oxides formed at the titanium oxide/iron interface. Deconvolution of hysteresis loops helps extract information for each magnetic phase. We also explore the magnetic interactions between the phases and observe the magnetic hardening effect induced by the nanopores. The ZFC-FC measurements show a disordered glass state below 50 K, likely due to iron oxide formation and short-range magnetic order at the titanium oxide-iron interface.