Magnetically anisotropic barium ferrite thin films on sapphire by sol–gel process

Abstract: Hexagonal barium ferrite (BaM) thin films have been prepared by sol–gel technique involving spin coating and annealing in air. Different ratios of Ba to Fe, different annealing temperatures and different annealing time are explored. X-ray diffraction shows that the films have been epitaxially grown on the sapphire (001) plane with [100] direction of BaM parallel to [110] of Al2O3, and the c-axes of them being parallel, while magnetic measurements show magnetically anisotropic loops with in-plane and out-of-plane intrinsic coercivity of 87.5kA/m and 230.8kA/m, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]