Transparent ferrimagnetic semiconducting CuCr2O4 thin films by atomic layer deposition

We report the magnetic and optical properties of CuCr2O4 thin films fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) from Cu(thd)2, Cr(acac)3, and ozone; we deposit 200 nm thick films and anneal them at 700 °C in oxygen atmosphere to crystallize the spinel phase. A ferrimagnetic transition at 140 K and a direct bandgap of 1.36 eV are determined for the films from magnetic and UV-vis spectrophotometric measurements. Electrical transport measurements confirm the p-type semiconducting behavior of the films. As the ALD technique allows the deposition of conformal pin-hole-free coatings on complex 3D surfaces, our CuCr2O4 films are interesting material candidates for various frontier applications.