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Exploring room temperature multiferroicity in Mg0.3Co0.7Fe2O4 films

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Abstract

Multiferroic materials with sizeable magnetization and electric polarization simultaneously at room temperature hold the promise for the realization of low-dissipation multifunctional devices. Here, we demonstrate room temperature multiferroicity in a single-phase Mg0.3Co0.7Fe2O4 spinel ferrite thin films. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns along with Raman spectroscopy elucidate spinel structure with Fd \(\overline{3 }\) m space group for Mg0.3Co0.7Fe2O4 thin film. The existence of Fe3+, Co2+, and Mg2+ in the Mg0.3Co0.7Fe2O4 films was confirmed by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The local magnetic properties were probed by conducting the (magnetic force microscopy) MFM measurements and grain-like magnetic domain structures have been observed. The irreversible behavior of temperature-dependent field cooled (FC) and zero field cooled (ZFC) magnetization curves suggests that the Neel temperature and blocking temperature are higher than 380 K. Mg0.3Co0.7Fe2O4 thin film exhibits typical ferroelectric hysteresis and ferromagnetic hysteresis with saturation polarization of 1.7 µC cm–2 and saturation polarization 148 emu cm–3, which suggest the multiferroicity of the spinel thin film. Piezoresponse response measurements suggest a piezoelectric displacement of 30 Å. The peculiar multiferroicity in the spinel films likely originates from cation ordering and local frustration induced by the inclusion of Mg2+ in the sublattices of the spinel structure. The activation energy of 0.467 eV is calculated which suggests that the polar on hopping could be responsible for the conduction characteristics in the present films. The finding of multiferroicity of Mg0.3Co0.7Fe2O4 thin film may lead to the advancement of multiferroic material for new information storage technology and magnetoelectric sensors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Analysis and Testing Center of Tianjin University for the experimental data acquisition. The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City, Science and Technology Planning Project of Tianjin City and National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Funding

This study was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (18JCYBJC85700 and 18JCZDJC30500), Science and Technology Planning Project of Tianjin City (20ZYQCGX00070), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (62001326).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Film Electronic & Communication Devices, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Yemei Han, Kaisong Shen, Lili Guo, Kai Hu, Zheng Sun, Fang Wang & Kailiang Zhang

  2. School of Environmental and Materials Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai, 264005, Shandong, China

    Haitao Wu

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  1. Yemei Han
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by KS and LG. The first draft of the manuscript was written by KS. YH, KH, ZS, FW, HW, and KZ: reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Han, Y., Shen, K., Guo, L. et al. Exploring room temperature multiferroicity in Mg0.3Co0.7Fe2O4 films. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 2181 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11435-1

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