Within this thesis, (ultra)thin NiFe2O4 (NFO) and CoFe2O4 (CFO) films are prepared via reactive
molecular beam epitaxy (RMBE) on MgO(001) and SrTiO3(001) substrates and are characterized
in terms of their structural, electronic, and magnetic properties. In a first step, the structural properties of ultrathin off-stoichiometric NixFe(3-x)O4 films (0<x<1.5) deposited via RMBE on MgO(001) are investigated in
situ during film deposition by means of synchrotron radiation-based x-ray diffraction (XRD) and ex situ after film growth by high energy surface x-ray diffraction (HESXRD). In the second major step of this work, a
more extensive study on the dependence of the cationic ratio in NixFe(3-x)O4 thin films (0<x<2.07)
grown on MgO(001) is conducted. The film surface structure and chemical composition is characterized in situ by low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and laboratory-based soft x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. Film thicknesses are determined via analysis of x-ray reflectivity (XRR) data, while the
film structure is analyzed by XRD measurements. Further, chemical properties and the electronic
structure of the NFO films with focus on the cationic valencies of Ni and Fe cations with varying
x is investigated by means of (angle-resolved) hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy [(AR-)HAXPES]. Complementary x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular
dichroism (XMCD) investigations are conducted to obtain information on the cationic site
occupancies and on the element-specific magnetic moments. The latter are compared to magnetic
properties characterized via superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry. In a third step, the type of substrate is changed to SrTiO3(001) to investigate the influence of a larger strain applied by the substrate to NFO films with varying thicknesses. Structural characterization at the surfaces and in the films is conducted by means of LEED, XRR, and (grazing incidence) XRD, whereas XPS and HAXPES provide information on the chemical composition and electronic structure in the near-surface region and in deeper subsurface layers, respectively. Magnetic properties are characterized by SQUID magnetometry. In a fourth step, an alternative pathway for the formation of ferrite thin films is demonstrated exemplarily for CoFe2O4 films on SrTiO3(001), which are formed by interdiffusion of Fe3O4/CoO bilayers. The interdiffusion process was monitored via XRR, soft XPS and AR-HAXPES to determine the bilayer/film structure, stoichiometry, and chemical properties. Analysis of complementary XAS measurements provides additional information on the occupancies of Fe and Co cations during interdiffusion. Final SQUID magnetometry measurements are performed to gain information on the
magnetic properties before and after complete interdiffusion. Overall, within this thesis, it was demonstrated that NFO and CFO thin films can be prepared in high structural quality with sharp interfaces and surfaces, which is crucial for the applicability in the fields of spintronics and spincaloritronics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uni-osnabrueck.de/oai:repositorium.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de:urn:nbn:de:gbv:700-202102124037 |
| Date | 12 February 2021 |
| Creators | Rodewald, Jari Michael |
| Contributors | Prof. Dr. Joachim Wollschläger, Prof. Dr. Thomas Schröder |
| Source Sets | Universität Osnabrück |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:doctoralThesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/zip |
| Rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Germany, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/de/ |
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