Synthesis and characterization of Ca3Co4O9 thin films prepared by sol-gel spin-coating technique on Al2O3(001)

Ca3Co4O9 thin films are deposited on Al2O3(001) substrates using a sol-gel spin-coating process. X-ray diffraction shows that the film exhibits a single phase of Ca3Co4O9 with the (001) planes parallel Lathe film surface. The temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility showed as expected the existence of two magnetic transitions similar to those observed in bulk samples: a ferrimagnetic and a spin-state transition around 19 and 375 K, respectively. At 5 K the magnetization curves along the c-axis of the Al2O3(001) show that the remanent magnetization and coercive field are close to those obtained for films grown by pulsed laser deposition, which evidences the interest to use such an easy technique to grow complex thin films oxides. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.