Microstructural characterization of CoMnFeO4 thin films deposited by radio-frequency sputtering

CoMnFeO4 thin films are stable materials useful to study the influence of radio-frequency sputtering experimental conditions, on the microstructure of oxide films. From various techniques of electronic microscopy, gas adsorption techniques and ellipsometry measurements, it was shown that such oxides films prepared with 0.5 Pa sputtering argon pressure and 5 cm target–substrate distance are very dense. On the other hand, the samples obtained under higher pressure and/or longer distance, are microporous. This porosity is mainly due to shadowing and energetic effects of sputtered particles. According to different characterization techniques, a simple model is proposed to describe the microstructure of the films studied.