Growth of Textured CoFe2O4 Thin Films on Platinized Silicon Prepared by a Sol-Gel Method

We fabricated textured polycrystalline $CoFe_2O_4$ thin films on $Pt(111)/TiO_2/SiO_2/Si$ substrate through a sol-gel method. We varied the thickness of the films, by using precursor solutions with different concentrations of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 M, and by depositing 5, 8, or 10 layers on the substrate by spin-coating. X-ray diffraction spectra indicated that when the precursor concentration of the solution was higher than 0.1 M, the spin-coated films were preferentially oriented in the <111> direction. Inspection of the surface morphology by scanning electron microscopy revealed that $CoFe_2O_4$ thin films prepared with 0.2 M solution and 5-time spin-coatings had smoother surface, as compared to the other conditions. Each coating had an average thickness of about 50 nm. The magnetic properties measured by vibrating sample magnetometer showed magnetic anisotropy, as evidenced from the difference in the in-plane and out-of-plane hysteresis loops, which we attributed to the textured orientation of the $CoFe_2O_4$ thin films.