All Oxide Ferromagnet/Semiconductor Epitaxial Heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful growth and characterization of high-quality Fe3O4/ZnO heterostructures on various substrates, demonstrating their potential for spintronic applications due to their ferromagnetic and crystalline properties.

Contribution

It presents the first high-quality epitaxial growth of Fe3O4/ZnO heterostructures with sharp interfaces and ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature.

Findings

High-quality crystalline Fe3O4 films with minimal mosaic spread

Sharp interfaces and low surface roughness achieved

Ferromagnetic behavior with saturation magnetization at 300 K

Abstract

Oxide based ferromagnet/semiconductor heterostructures offer substantial advantages for spin electronics. We have grown (111) oriented Fe3O4 thin films and Fe3O4/ZnO heterostructures on ZnO(0001) and Al2O3(0001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. High quality crystalline films with mosaic spread as small as 0.03 degree, sharp interfaces, and rms surface roughness of 0.3 nm were achieved. Magnetization measurements show clear ferromagnetic behavior of the magnetite layers with a saturation magnetization of 3.2 muB/f.u. at 300 K. Our results demonstrate that the Fe3O4/ZnO system is an intriguing and promising candidate for the realization of multi-functional heterostructures.