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Abstract This work focuses on the nature of magnetic anisotropy in 2.5–16 micron thick films of nickel ferrite (NFO) grown by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). The technique, ideal for rapid growth of epitaxial oxide films, was utilized for films on (100) and (110) substrates of magnesium gallate (MGO). The motivation was to investigate the dependence of the growth induced anisotropy field on film thickness since submicron films of NFO were reported to show a very high anisotropy. The films grown at 850–875 C and subsequently annealed at 1000 C were found to be epitaxial, with the out-of-plane lattice constant showing unanticipated decrease with increasing film thickness and the estimated in-plane lattice constant increasing with the film thickness. The uniaxial anisotropy field H σ , estimated from X-ray diffraction data, ranged from 2.8–7.7 kOe with the films on (100) MGO having a higher H σ value than for the films on (110) MGO. Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements for in-plane and out-of-plane static magnetic field were utilized to determine both the magnetocrystalline the anisotropy field H 4 and the uniaxial anisotropy field H a . Values of H 4 range from −0.24 to −0.86 kOe. The uniaxial anisotropy field H a was an order of magnitude smaller than H σ and it decreased with increasing film thickness for NFO films on (100) MGO, but H a increased with film thickness for films on (110) MGO substrates. These observations indicate that the origin of the induced anisotropy could be attributed to several factors including (i) strain due to mismatch in the film-substrate lattice constants, (ii) possible variations in the bond lengths and bond angles in NFO during the growth process, and (iii) the strain arising from mismatch in the thermal expansion coefficients of the film and the substrate due to the high growth and annealing temperatures involved in the LPE technique. The LPE films of NFO on MGO substrates studied in this work are of interest for use in high frequency devices.
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Electrical and optical properties of nickel-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 films produced by magnetron co-sputtering
A magnetron co-sputtering system was used for producing nickel-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST-Ni) thin films. The nickel content in the thin film was adjusted by the ratio of the plasma discharge power applied to the GST and nickel targets, as well as a physical shuttering technique to further control the nickel deposition rate. The doping concentration of the film was con firmed using Energy Dispersion Spectroscopy (EDS) technique. Results from a four-point probe measurement indicate that the nickel doping can reduce the resistivity of GST in the amorphous state by nearly three orders of magnitude. The dopant's influence on crystallization behavior was studied by analyzing X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns of the pure GST and GST-Ni at different annealing temperatures. To examine the structural changes due to the nickel dopant, the thin films were investigated with the aid of Raman scattering. Additionally, we extracted the optical constants for both the amorphous and crystalline states of undoped-GST and GST-Ni films by ellipsometry. The results indicate that at low doping concentrations nickel does not appreciably affect the optical constants, but dramatically improves the electrical conductivity. Therefore, nickel-doping of GST a viable method for designing optical devices for lower operating voltages at higher switching speeds.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1710273
- PAR ID:
- 10080769
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of SPIE, Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices XV
- Volume:
- 10730
- Issue:
- 107300L
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 19
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2320843
