Swift heavy ion induced crystallographic tilt and site-disorder in epitaxial magneto-electric GaFeO3 thin films

The effects of swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation in epitaxial thin film of magneto-electric GaFeO3 (GFO) deposited on (0 0 1) oriented yttria-stabilized zirconia substrate are reported. The structural modifications during the irradiation are studied using in-situ x-ray diffraction and it is observed that SHI induces stress. Thus the induced stress leads to the formation of elongated array of GFO nano-grains and the crystallographic tilting between film and substrate as observed from reciprocal space mapping (RSM). The epitaxy is found to persist even with a dose of ions cm−2 from the RSM. The irradiation is found to affect the magnetic properties of GFO viz., the transition temperature and the redistribution of iron at soft and hard magnetic sites. These observations indicate the possibility of tuning structural and magnetic properties of GFO with SHI.