Diamagnetism to ferromagnetism in Sr-substituted epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films

We report on the ferromagnetic-like behavior in otherwise diamagnetic BaTiO3 (BTO) thin films upon doping with non-magnetic element Sr having the composition Ba0.4Sr0.6TiO3 (BST). The epitaxial integration of BST (similar to 800 nm) thick films on Si (100) substrate was achieved using MgO (40 nm) and TiN (20 nm) as buffer layers to prepare BST/MgO/TiN/Si (100) heterostructure by pulsed laser deposition. The c-axis oriented and cube-on-cube epitaxial BST is formed on Si (100) as evidenced by the in-plane and out-of-plane X-ray diffraction. All the deposited films are relaxed through domain matching epitaxy paradigm as observed from X-ray diffraction pattern and A(1)TO(3) mode (at 521.27 cm(-1)) of Raman spectra. As-deposited BST thin films reveal ferromagnetic-like properties, which persist up to 400 K. The magnetization decreases two-fold upon oxygen annealing. In contrast, as-deposited un-doped BTO films show diamagnetism. Electron spin resonance measurements reveal no evidence of external magnetic impurities. XRD and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra show significant changes influenced by Sr doping in BTO. The ferromagnetic-like behavior in BST could be due to the trapped electron donors from oxygen vacancies resulting from Sr-doping. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.