Fabrication and magnetic properties of Ce1Y2Fe5O12 thin films on GGG and SiO2/Si substrates

Microstructure and magnetic properties of crystalline Ce₁Y₂Fe₅O₁₂ thin films prepared on GGG and on SiO₂/Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition were studied. The results show that highly textured Ce₁Y₂Fe₅O₁₂ film with (4 4 4) preferred orientation prepared on GGG (1 1 1) shows strong paramagnetism superimposed by a weak ferromagnetism. However, polycrystalline Ce₁Y₂Fe₅O₁₂ thin films on SiO₂/Si, which can only be obtained after post-annealing, show strong ferromagnetism with easy axis of magnetization lying in the plane of the film. With post-annealing temperature increasing, CeO₂ segregates from Ce₁Y₂Fe₅O₁₂; then YIG continues to be decomposed, forming Fe₂O₃. Consequently, the saturation magnetization of Ce₁Y₂Fe₅O₁₂ films decreases first and then increases correspondingly, which indicates that the magnetic properties of Ce₁Y₂Fe₅O₁₂ films are mainly related to the microstructure.