Influence of Fe/Ba ratio, basic agent and calcination temperature on the physical properties of nanocrystalline barium hexaferrite thin films prepared by a sol–gel method

Abstract In this work nanocrystalline BaFe 12 O 19 thin films have been prepared on the Si (1 1 0) substrates by a sol–gel method using the aqueous solution of metal nitrates. The efforts have been done to decrease the calcination temperature and to reduce the crystallite size of the single-phase barium ferrite thin films. The precursor solutions were primed with the various Fe/Ba ratios and two kinds of the basic agents, and the coated films were heat treated at the different temperatures. The thin films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The effects of calcination temperature, molar ratio of Fe/Ba and basic agent on composition, crystallites size and morphology were also investigated.