Deposition of Fe3O4 Thin Films by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering and Solid State Reaction

Abstract

In this article, we introduce the fabrication of Fe and the FexOy thin films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering, using facing target sputtering system with Fe planar targets. Also preparation of Fe3O4 thin films using annealing Fe2O3 and Fe multilayer in vacuum is investigated. Crystal structure and phase of as deposited thin films, structural changes of this system after annealing were measured and analyzed using XRD method. The surface morphology was investigated by AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy). Magnetic properties of the samples were measured with the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and MFM (Magnetic Force Microscopy). It was found that the remnant magnetization in Fe2O3/Fe bi-layer is two times larger than that for Fe3O4, the coercivity value of bi-layer structure is 5 mT and after annealing it increases up to 10 mT. The resisitivity values of thin films were found to be 27 μΩ·cm (Fe) and 85 mΩ·cm (Fe3O4). The results show that this method is practical for magnetite thin films synthesis because of comparatively low annealing temperature (450 °C) and reasonable annealing time (2 h).