Epitaxial growth of ferromagnetic Co:TiO2 thin films by co-sputtering

Abstract Epitaxial anatase Co:TiO 2 thin films were grown on LaAlO 3 (0 0 1) substrates by co-sputtering method. Structural and compositional properties were measured as a function of deposition parameters to explore the growth mechanism of the anatase films. Epitaxial anatase structure can be obtained at deposition temperatures ranged from 500°C to 750°C. magnetization measurements show that the saturation magnetization ( M s ) increases as deposition temperature increases. At 750°C, M s is about 1.13 μ B /Co. X-ray diffraction results show that the sample has a superior anatase crystallinity with the full-width at half-maximum of 0.13°. It was found that M s is directly related with the crystallinity, i.e., M s increases as the crystallinity of samples improves.