Electrical and magnetic transport properties of Fe3O4 thin films on GaAs (100) substrate

TL;DR

This study investigates the structural, electrical, and magnetic properties of Fe3O4 thin films grown on GaAs (100) substrates, revealing their phase purity, Verwey transition, conduction mechanism, and ferrimagnetic behavior.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive analysis of Fe3O4 thin films on GaAs substrates, including growth, structural characterization, and detailed transport and magnetic properties.

Findings

Fe3O4 films exhibit (111) preferred orientation.

Verwey transition observed at 122 K.

Ferrimagnetic behavior with saturation magnetization ~470 emu/cc.

Abstract

Thin films of magnetite (Fe3O4) are grown on single crystal GaAs (100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition. X ray diffraction (XRD) result shows the (111) preferred orientation of the Fe3O4 film and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirm the presence of single phase Fe3O4 in the film. The electrical transport property of the film shows the characteristic Verwey transition at 122 K and below 110 K, the transport follows variable range hopping type conduction mechanism. The film shows room temperature magnetization hysteresis loop suggesting the ferrimagnetic behavior of the film with saturation magnetization value close to 470 emu/cc.