Structural, Magnetic and Electric Characteristics of Multiferroic CoFe2O4/BNEuT Composite Thin Films Produced by Non-aqueous Sol-gel Process

Abstract

Ferromagnetic cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) thin films for magnetoelectric multiferroic applications were synthesized on (Bi3.25Nd0.65Eu0.10)Ti3O12/Nb:TiO2 substrates at reaction temperatures of 140190C using a non-aqueous sol-gel process. The magnetic properties of the films were measured, and the sample synthesized at 180C was found to exhibit the highest residual magnetization and coercivity of 1.5 emu/g and 134 Oe, respectively. The ferroelectric properties of all samples were similar, with a large remanent polarization of 5867 C/cm and a coercive field of 421462 kV/cm, regardless of the reaction temperature. Based on its magnetic and ferroelectric properties, the sample synthesized at 180C has potential as a practical multiferroic material.