Kinetics, Growth, Structure, and Atmospheric Chemical Vapor Deposition of Ferrimagnetic Iron Oxide Thin Films from Metallorganic Acetyl Acetonate Precursor

Growth of magnetic iron oxide thin films by a chemical vapor deposition process from metallorganic iron acetyl acetonate precursor under atmospheric transport is described. Kinetics of film growth depends on deposition parameters, particularly substrate temperature, gas flow rate, and location of substrate away from the source which is a direct effect of mass transfer and pyrolyzing efficiency of precursor vapor. As‐deposited films essentially have phase which is transformed by a sequential reduction‐oxidation process into and phases as revealed by electron diffraction studies. The modification in the crystalline phase of the as‐deposited film is observed by varying the substrate orientation and Ar to gas‐phase ratios. The phase of iron oxide films in the as deposited form, is realized by using pure Ar as transport gas. Microstructural changes as well as magnetic properties of iron oxide thin films on transformation into different polymorphic crystallographic phases are described.