Eur. Phys. J. B 24, 43-49 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510170020

Magnetic behavior and role of the antiphase boundaries in Fe₃O₄ epitaxial films sputtered on MgO (001)

¹ Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée (UMR 5830 UPS-CNRS-INSA) , 135 avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
² CEMES CNRS, 29 rue Jeanne Marvig, 31055 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
³ Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Ke Karlovu 3, 121 16 Prague 2, Czech Republic
⁴ Groupe de Physique des Matériaux (UMR CNRS 6634) , Faculté des Sciences de Rouen, 76821 Mont Saint Aignan Cedex, France

Corresponding author: ^a bobo@insa-tlse.fr

Received: 2 July 2001
Published online: 15 November 2001

Abstract

Magnetite Fe₃O₄ films were grown on single crystal MgO (001) substrates using facing target sputtering technique. Conversion Electron Mössbauer Spectroscopy and magneto optical polar Kerr spectra have confirmed the stoichiometric repartition of Fe cations corresponding to the inverse spinel structure and the electronic structure characteristic of bulk Fe₃O₄. Hysteresis loops carried out at room temperature show that, in a 1 T applied magnetic field, only 60% of the saturation magnetization is detected. This behavior is discussed in correlation to the antiphase boundaries (APBs) observed by electron microscopy. Magnetic force microscopy studies show that magnetic domains are larger than the mean distance between APBs.