Epitaxial thin films of multiferroic GaFeO3 on conducting indium tin oxide (001) buffered yttrium-stabilized zirconia (001) by pulsed laser deposition

Epitaxial films of an alternative multiferroic material, GaFeO3 (GFO), were grown by pulsed laser deposition on yttrium-stabilized zirconia (001) and on conducting buffer layers of indium tin oxide (001). They present a perfect epitaxial growth along the GFO [010] axis and six crystallographic variants in the film's plane. Their magnetic properties are close to those of the bulk with an out-of-plane [010] hard direction and a Curie temperature of similar to 200 K. The films did exhibit ferroelectric properties when characterized by electrostatic force microscopy. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.