Crystallization of amorphous Ba-ferrite/sapphire[001] thin films

BaFe12O19 (Ba-ferrite) thin films are considered to be attractive, potential, high-density recording media[l-3]. Our recent work has well characterized the microstructure of antiferromagnetic a-Fe2O3 phase existing in the Ba-ferrite films[4]. In this study, we present a real-time synchrotron x-ray scattering experiments to elucidate the detailed phase transition during the crystallization of amorphous Ba-ferrite films, which were grown on sapphire(OO1) substrates at room temperature by radio frequency (rF) magnetron sputtering of a stoichiometric Ba-ferrite target.