Effect of Temperature on Structural and Magnetic Properties of Laser Ablated Iron Oxide Deposited on Si(100)

We fabricate Fe₃O₄ thin films on Si(100) substrates at different temperatures using pulsed laser deposition, and study the effect of annealing and deposition temperature on the structural and magnetic properties of Fe₃O₄ thin films. Subsequently, the films are characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometery (VSM). The XRD results of these films confirm the presence of the Fe₃O₄ phase and show room-temperature ferromagnetism, as observed with VSM. We demonstrate the optimized deposition and annealing conditions for an enhanced magnetization of 854emu/cm³ that is very high when compared to the bulk sample.