Morphology control of barium ferrite thin films

Hexagonal barium ferrite thin films were fabricated by spin coating of precursors obtained by sol-gel methods onto sapphire (00l) faces. Citric acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) were used to tune the morphology of the films. The films show texture with c-axis normal to the film plane as shown by the strong x-ray diffractions from the (001) plane with full width at half maximum of the rocking curves about 0.4°. The [100] direction of the film is parallel to the [110] direction of the sapphire. With the increase of the citric acid, the percentage of the acicular crystallites increased. EDTA can be used to produce films with the best texture where faceted grains were obtained. The maximum coercive force obtained was about 302 kA/m.