Journal of Inorganic Materials ›› 2017, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (5): 555-560.DOI: 10.15541/jim20160464

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles    

Effects of La Doping on CaB6 Thin Films Prepared by DC Magnetron Sputtering

ZHANG Lin, LIU Hui-Hui, LIU Lin-Jia, ZHAO Guo-Qing, WU Yan, MIN Guang-Hui   

  1. (Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China)
  • Received:2016-08-10 Published:2017-05-20 Online:2017-05-02
  • Supported by:
    Foundation item: National Natural Science Foundation of China (51102154), Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University (2015JC033)

Abstract:

Both La doped and undoped Ca1-xLaxB6 (x = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03) thin films were prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering method. Morphology and thickness of these films were characterized by atomic force microscopy. Thicknesses of doped films were about twice that of the undoped films, while the grain growth of the film was much enhanced by La doping. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used for investigating the chemical composition of film surfaces. Calculated La/Ca atomic ratios were close to the theoretical values, and there were no other ferromagnetic impurities or elements especially iron existing in films. Ca0.98La0.02B6 films exhibited the highest room temperature saturation magnetization 84.54 emu/cm3. The saturation magnetization decreased with increasing film thickness. B6 vacancies may be the main source of magnetism. Other defects such as grain boundaries also affected the magnitude of magnetism.

Key words: CaB6, thin film, La doping concentration, magnetism

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