Growth temperature dependence of the crystal orientation and the magnetic properties of CoMn2O4 thin films

Abstract

We successfully grew epitaxial CoMn2O4 thin films on Nb(0.1wt)-doped SrTiO3(001) single crystal substrates for the first time using the pulsed laser deposition technique and studied growth temperature dependencies of their structural and magnetic properties. Interestingly, the crystal orientation of the films depends on the growth temperature. At temperature below 870 A degrees C, the surface normal direction of the film is the (400) direction with strained or relaxed domains whereas it changes to the direction (004) at 920 A degrees C. M-T curves show features of ferrimagnetic spin order for all samples while the shapes of the M-T curves and M-H loops strongly depend on the growth temperature. These alterations of the magnetic properties with changing growth temperature are attributed to the changes in the crystal orientation of the CoMn2O4 thin films.