Cation-disorder-enhanced magnetization in pulsed-laser-deposited CuFe2O4 films -: art. no. 252510

Copper ferrite films have been deposited on (100) MgO substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. The oxygen pressure used in deposition was varied from 1 to 120 mTorr with the substrate temperature fixed at 700 degrees C. Magnetization values are measured to increase with oxygen pressure, reaching a maximum value of 2480 G, which is a 42% increase over the bulk equilibrium value. Extended x-ray absorption spectroscopy shows that the Cu cation inversion delta [defined as (Cu1-delta Fe delta)(tet)[Cu delta Fe2-delta]O-oct(4)] decreases monotonically from 0.72 to 0.55 with increasing saturation magnetization. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.