Abstract
Epitaxial (111) Fe3 O4 film on the Cu underlayer was obtained by using reactive ion-beam sputtering with high incident energy at room temperature. X-ray φ scans and transmission electron microscope diffraction pattern revealed unusual 12-fold symmetry of the (111) Fe3 O4 films on Cu (001) underlayers due to the presence of two kinds of epitaxial (111) grains in Fe3 O4 films. The saturation magnetization of the 70 nm thick (111) Fe3 O4 films is 291 emu cm3. A clear Verwey transition of Fe3 O4 films was observed around 116 K. The root-mean-square roughness of the Fe3 O4 surface is only 3.5 Å. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.