Magnetic behavior of cobalt oxide films prepared by pulsed liquid injection chemical vapor deposition from a metal-organic precursor

Thin films of cobalt oxide were prepared by the pulsed liquid injection chemical vapor deposition technique from metal-organic precursor. By using a β-diketonate complex of cobalt, namely cobalt (II) acetylacetonate (Co(acac)₂) as the precursor, oxygen as the reactant and argon as the carrier gas, cobalt oxide films 100 nm in thick were deposited onto Si (100) substrates at 650 °C in about 40 min. According to the characterization by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy, smooth and polycrystalline films, consisting exclusively of the Co₃O₄ phase, were deposited. Magnetic properties, such as saturation magnetization, the remanence, the coercivity, the squareness ratio and the switching field distribution, were extracted from the hysteresis loop. Cobalt oxide films with coercivities of 6.61 mT, squareness ratio of 0.2607 and saturation magnetization of 12.17 nA m², corresponding to a soft magnetic material, were achieved.