The Role of (111)MgO Underlayer in Growth of c-axis Oriented Barium Ferrite Films

Hexagonal barium-ferrite ($BaFe₁₂O₁₉$, magnetoplumbite structure; BaM) film with perpendicularly c-axis orientation was successfully deposited on (100) silicon substrates with an MgO (111) underlayer by rf diode sputtering and in-situ heating at $920^\circC$. The magnetic and structural properties of 0.27 ${\mu}m$ thick BaM films on MgO (111) underlayers were compared to films of the same thickness deposited onto single-crystal MgO (111) and c-plane ($000{\ell}$) sapphire ($Al_2O_3$) substrates by vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), x-ray diffractometer (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The thickness dependence of MgO (111) underlayers on silicon wafer was found to have a large effect on both magnetic and structural properties of the BaM film. The thickness of 15 nm MgO (111) underlayers produced BaM films with almost identical magnetic and structural properties as the single-crystal substrates; this can be explained by the lower surface roughness for thinner underlayer thicknesses. The magnetization saturation ($M_s$) and the ratio $H_cII/H_{c{\bot}}$ for the BaM film with a 15 nm MgO (111) underlayer is 217 emu/cc and 0.24, respectively. This is similar to the results for the BaM films deposited on the single-crystal MgO (111) and sapphire substrates of 197 emu/cc and 0.10, 200 emu/cc and 0.12, respectively. Therefore, the proposed MgO (111) underlayer can be used in many applications to promote c-axis orientation without the cost of expensive substrates.