Effects of Annealing Temperature on Structure and Magnetic Properties of TbxY3−xFe5O12 (x=0.2 and 0.4) Thin Films

Terbium-substituted yttrium iron garnet (TbxY3−xFe5O12 (x=0.2 and 0.4)) thin films have been successfully prepared by a sol-gel method followed by spin-coating process. The annealing of the films was performed at different temperatures like 700, 800, and 900°C and found that the films annealed at 900°C turned out to be crystallized into a pure garnet phase. All of the films were bearing grains of nanometer in size. Increasing the annealing temperature gave extra energy to the grains causing to be agglomerates. The lattice contraction occurred as the grain’s sizes were decreased due to the decrease of Fe2+ formation. The magnetic measurements show that all of the films are soft magnetic materials with low saturation magnetization values. The hysteresis loops of the films which were annealed at 900°C were found angular in shape similar to the single crystal-like YIG film