Room-temperature growth of epitaxial (111) Fe3O4 films with conductive Cu underlayer

Abstract

Epitaxial (111) Fe3O4 film on the Cu underlayer was obtained by using reactive ion-beam sputtering with high incident energy at room temperature. X-ray φ scans and transmission electron microscope diffraction pattern revealed unusual 12-fold symmetry of the (111) Fe3O4 films on Cu (001) underlayers due to the presence of two kinds of epitaxial (111) grains in Fe3O4 films. The saturation magnetization of the 70nm thick (111) Fe3O4 films is 291emu∕cm3. A clear Verwey transition of Fe3O4 films was observed around 116K. The root-mean-square roughness of the Fe3O4 surface is only 3.5Å.