Dependence of Structural and Electrical Properties of Sputtered-Fe3O4 Thin Films on Gas Flow Rate

Authors

  • Vo Doan Thanh Truong Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam
  • Thi Truong An Le Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam
  • Huu Nhut Nguyen Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam
  • Hoang Trung Huynh Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam
  • Thi Kim Hang Pham Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Corressponding author's email:

hangptk@hcmute.edu.vn

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54644/jte.72A.2022.1237

Keywords:

Magnitite, Thin films, RF-magnetron sputtering, Spintronics, Verwey transition

Abstract

Magnetite (Fe3O4) is a potential material for spintronic development due to its high Curie temperature (858 K) and half-metallic structure with only one spin polarization at Fermi level. The bulk properties of Fe3O4 make it a big challenge to grow perfectly stoichiometric thin films at a low temperature. Here, we report the structural and morphological evolution of the Fe3O4 thin films as a function of gas flow rate. Radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering was used to fabricate Fe3O4 thin films on the MgO/Ta/SiO2 structure at room temperature. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows a spherical-like shape, the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness varies from 1.5 nm to 7.5 nm, and grain size increases from 30 nm to 74.3 nm. The structural properties of Fe3O4 films are dramatically enhanced by increasing the gas flow rate. Moreover, the resistivity (r) versus temperature (T) reveals the existence of a Verwey transition below 120 K, indicating the presence of Fe3O4.

Downloads: 0

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Vo Doan Thanh Truong, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Vo Doan Thanh Truong graduated in Materials Technology from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE), Vietnam with a high GPA. Her research focuses on fabricating semiconductor and magnetic thin films using physical deposition techniques and studying the effects of different factors, such as growth temperature, deposition pressure and power on thin films' properties.

Thi Truong An Le, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Thi Truong An Le is a senior at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE), Vietnam, whose major is Materials Technology. She is interested in fabricating Fe3O4 thin films and studying factors that affect their properties.

 

Huu Nhut Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Huu Nhut Nguyen is a final-year student at the HCMUTE, Vietnam and currently pursuing an engineering degree in Material Technology major. His research is on the fabrication of Fe3O4 thin films and studying the effects of various factors on Fe3O4 thin films’ properties.

 

Hoang Trung Huynh, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Hoang Trung Huynh obtained his MS. degree from Ho Chi Minh City National University, University of Science in 2008. He has expertise not only in the fabrication of thin films using various deposition methods such as sol-gel, thermal evaporation, sputtering, and chemical vapor deposition, but also in working with electronic devices such as ultraviolet light-emitting diodes and transistors, which have been published in both national and international journal articles.

Thi Kim Hang Pham, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Thi Kim Hang Pham received her MS. degree from the Institute of Physic, Hanoi, Vietnam in 2011 and then achieved a PhD. degree from Ewha Womans University, Korea in 2019. She has a lot of experience in fabricating and characterizing many magnetic and semiconductor materials using physical deposition techniques such as Fe3O4, IrMn3, Mn, Si, FeSi, Fe2O3, and ZnO.

References

M. Fonin, Y. S. Dedkov, R. Pentcheva, U. Rüdiger, and G. Güntherodt, "Magnetite: a search for the half-metallic state," Journal of Physics Condensed Matter, vol. 19, pp. 315217 - 315229, 2007.

S. Jain, A. O. Adeyeye, and C. B. Boothroyd, "Electronic properties of half metallic Fe3O4 films," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 97, no. 9, 2005, Art no.093713.

A. V. Ramos et al., "Magnetotransport properties of Fe3O4 epitaxial thin films: Thickness effects driven by antiphase boundaries," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 100, no. 10, 2006, Art no. 103902.

T. H. and K. Y., "Phase Transformation of Oxide Scale and Its Control," Nippon Steel & Sumimoto Metal Technical Report, no. 111, pp. 87-91, 2016.

E. Guiot, S. Gota, M. Henriot, M. Gautier-Soyer, and S. Lefebvre, "Growth and Structure Of Nanometric Iron Oxide Films," MRS Online Proceedings Library, vol. 524, no. 1, pp. 101-107, 1998.

X. Huang and J. Ding, "The structure, magnetic and transport properties of Fe3O4 thin films on different substrates by pulsed laser deposition," Journal of the Korean Physical Society, vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 2228-2232, 2013.

A. V. Singh et al., "Studies of electrical and magnetic properties across the Verwey transition in epitaxial magnetite thin films," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 126, no. 9, 2019, Art no. 093902.

S. Syed, Y. Endo, T. Sato, Y. Kawamura, and R. Nakatani, "Change of Magnetic Properties and Structure in Fe3O4 Films on Si Substrates with Annealing Temperature," Materials Transactions - MATER TRANS, vol. 49, pp. 175-178, 2008.

M. S. Ansari, M. H. D. Othman, M. O. Ansari, S. Ansari, and N. Sazali, "Large spin-dependent tunneling magnetoresistance in Fe3O4/PET heterostructures developed at room temperature: A promising candidate for flexible and wearable spintronics," Materials Science and Engineering: B, vol. 265, 2021, Art no. 115033.

M. S. Ansari, M. H. D. Othman, M. O. Ansari, S. Ansari, H. Abdullah, and Z. Harun, "Magnetite thin films grown on different flexible polymer substrates at room temperature: Role of antiphase boundaries in electrical and magnetic properties," Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 846, 2020, Art no.156368.

Y. Peng, C. Park, and D. E. Laughlin, "Fe3O4 thin films sputter deposited from iron oxide targets," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 93, no. 10, pp. 7957-7959, 2003.

W. Zhang et al., "Magnetic anisotropies in epitaxial Fe3O4/GaAs(100) patterned structures," AIP Advances, vol. 4, no. 10, 107111, 2014.

S. Serrano-Guisan et al., "Thickness dependence of the effective damping in epitaxial Fe3O4/MgO thin films," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 109, no. 1, 2011, Art no. 013907.

Z. C. Huang et al., "Magnetic properties of ultrathin single crystal Fe3O4 film on InAs(100) by ferromagnetic resonance," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 111, no. 7, 2012, Art no. 07C108.

P. K. J. Wong et al., "Ultrathin Fe3O4 epitaxial films on wide bandgap GaN(0001)," Physical Review B, vol. 81, no. 3, p. 035419, 2010.

R. Takahashi, H. Misumi, and M. Lippmaa, "Growth temperature effect on the structural and magnetic properties of Fe3O4 films grown by the self-template method," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 116, no. 3, 2014, Art no. 033918.

O. Chichvarina, T. S. Herng, W. Xiao, X. Hong, and J. Ding, "Magnetic anisotropy modulation of epitaxial Fe3O4 films on MgO substrates," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 117, no. 17, 2015, Art no. 17D722.

J. Rubio-Zuazo, L. Onandia, E. Salas-Colera, A. Muñoz-Noval, and G. R. Castro, "Incommensurate Growth of Thin and Ultrathin Films of Single-Phase Fe3O4(001) on SrTiO3(001)," The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, vol. 119, no. 2, pp. 1108-1112, 2015.

J.-X. Yin et al., "Unconventional magnetization of Fe3O4 thin film grown on amorphous SiO2 substrate," AIP Advances, vol. 6, no. 6, 2016, Art no. 065111.

T. K. H. Pham et al., "Interface morphology effect on the spin mixing conductance of Pt/Fe3O4 bilayers," Scientific Reports, vol. 8, no. 1, 2018, Art no. 13907.

I. Žutić, J. Fabian, and S. Das Sarma, "Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications," Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 323-410, 2004.

J. J. Versluijs, M. A. Bari, and J. M. D. Coey, "Magnetoresistance of Half-Metallic Oxide Nanocontacts," Physical Review Letters, vol. 87, no. 2, 2001, Art no. 026601.

K. Khojier, H. Savaloni, E. Shokrai, Z. Dehghani, and N. Z. Dehnavi, "Influence of argon gas flow on mechanical and electrical properties of sputtered titanium nitride thin films," Journal of Theoretical and Applied Physics, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 37, 2013.

F. Machda, T. Ogawa, H. Okumura, and K. N. Ishihara, "Effects of Sputtering Gas on Crystal Growth Orientations and Durability of Al-doped ZnO Transparent Electrodes in Harsh Environment," in 2019 26th International Workshop on Active-Matrix Flatpanel Displays and Devices (AM-FPD), 2019, vol. 26th, pp. 1-4.

M. Yamaura and D. Fungaro, "Synthesis and characterization of magnetic adsorbent prepared by magnetite nanoparticles and zeolite from coal fly ash," Journal of Materials Science, vol. 48, pp. 5093-5101, 2013.

M. V. Castro and C. J. Tavares, "Dependence of Ga-doped ZnO thin film properties on different sputtering process parameters: Substrate temperature, sputtering pressure and bias voltage," Thin Solid Films, vol. 586, pp. 13-21, 2015.

A. Chaoumead, Y.-m. Sung, and D.-J. Kwak, "The Effects of RF Sputtering Power and Gas Pressure on Structural and Electrical Properties of ITiO Thin Film," Advances in Condensed Matter Physics, vol. 2012, 2012, Art no. 651587.

R. G. S. Sofin, S. K. Arora, and I. V. Shvets, "Positive antiphase boundary domain wall magnetoresistance in Fe3O4 (110) heteroepitaxial films," Physical Review B, vol. 83, no. 13, 2011, Art no.134436.

N. Takahashi et al., "Fabrication of Epitaxial Fe3O4 Film on a Si(111) Substrate," Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, 2017, Art no.7009.

A. Bollero et al., "Influence of thickness on microstructural and magnetic properties in Fe3O4 thin films produced by PLD," Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, vol. 285, no. 1, pp. 279-289, 2005.

Q. Sun et al., "Modulation on the magnetic and electrical properties of Fe3O4 thin films through strain relaxation," Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, vol. 536, 2021, Art no.168128.

J. A. Moyer, S. Lee, P. Schiffer, and L. W. Martin, "Magnetically disordered phase in epitaxial iron-deficient Fe3O4 thin films," Physical Review B, vol. 91, no. 6, 2015, Art no.064413.

Y. Z. Chen et al., "Microstructure and magnetic properties of strained Fe3O4 films," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 103, no. 7, 2008, Art no.07D703.

J. P. Hong et al., "Room temperature formation of half-metallic Fe3O4 thin films for the application of spintronic devices," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 83, no. 8, pp. 1590-1592, 2003.

Downloads

Published

28-10-2022

How to Cite

[1]
V. D. T. Truong, T. T. A. . Le, H. N. . Nguyen, H. T. Huynh, and T. K. H. . Pham, “Dependence of Structural and Electrical Properties of Sputtered-Fe3O4 Thin Films on Gas Flow Rate”, JTE, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 34–38, Oct. 2022.

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 5 (2022)

Section

Research Article

Categories

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Journal of Technical Education Science

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Copyright © JTE.

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC