Cubic phase stabilization in sputter deposited nanocrystalline copper ferrite thin films with large magnetization

Summary form only given. Copper ferrite is known to exist in two phases (a) cubic with large magnetization and (b) tetragonal with low magnetization. The former is stable only at the temperature of 350/spl deg/C and above in the bulk. The usual polycrystalline synthesis route results in the tetragonal phase with a magnetization of 1700 Oe. There has been a recent attempt to prepare copper ferrite with a large magnetization in the powder form. However, it was not possible to stabilize cubic phase and the maximum magnetization obtained was of the order of 2400 G. In this paper, we show that it is possible to stabilize cubic phase at room temperature in nano-crystalline sputter deposited copper ferrite thin films with a large magnetization.