Pulsed laser deposition of barium hexaferrite BaFe O /thin 12 19 films

Hexagonal thin films of barium hexaferrite BaFe12O19.were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition PLD. on sapphire substrates. The films were grown in oxygen atmosphere by two different pulsed excimer lasers: a XeClU ls308 nm, t FWHMF30 ns. and a KrFU ls248 nm, t FWHMG20 ns.laser in the temperature range 500–7508C. The experiments showed that the heating temperature is a key parameter in determining the films’ magnetic characteristics. Some of the films were laser annealed with an Nd:YAG laser ls1064 nm.. High coercivity Hcs3.6 kOe and good hysteresis shapes were obtained. An anisotropy of the coercive force Hc, saturation magnetization Msand remanent magnetization Mr was observed. The magnetic measurements were correlated with the structural and compositional characterization performed by X-ray diffraction XRD., atomic force microscopy AFM.and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS.. q2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved