Microstructural studies of metal/ferrite composite thin films

Metal/ferrite composite thin films were prepared by a reactive sputtering method to improve the saturation magnetization (Ms). The Ms of the thin films increased with increasing substrate temperature and this was attributed to the precipitation of a metal phase in the films. X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED) analyses confirmed that the composite thin films were composed of FexCo1 − x (x ≈ 0.33) alloys with a BCC structure and FexCo1 − xO4 (x ≈ 0.77) with a cubic spinel structure.