Reduction of the deposition temperature of high quality EuO films on Yttria Stabilized Zirconia by incorporating an MgO buffer layer

High quality stoichiometric EuO ferromagnetic thin films have been grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) on MgO coated-Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) (100) substrates. The proof is made that introducing an MgO buffer layer, that avoid oxygen transfer from YSZ to EuO, allows the preparation of high quality stoichiometric EuO films at reduced deposition temperature compared with films directly deposited onto YSZ, maintaining similar Eu flux and oxygen partial pressure. Structure and texture were characterized by X-ray diffraction showing out-of plane and in-plane ordering for films deposited onto MgO buffer layers. The crystallographic quality was corroborated by a Curie temperature around 69 K and a magnetization moment close or equal to 6.49 · 10- 23 J/T (7 μB), corresponding to bulk EuO single crystal values. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.