Epitaxial growth of hexagonal GdFeO 3 thin films with magnetic order by pulsed laser deposition

Hexagonal rare-earth iron oxides, h - R FeO 3, are promising multiferroic materials. The ferroic properties of h - R FeO 3 can be controlled by varying R. However, h - R FeO 3 exists in a metastable phase, resulting in a limit of available range of R. In this study, we fabricated h -GdFeO 3 phase via epitaxial stabilization. The h -GdFeO 3 epitaxial film with c -axis orientation was deposited on an indium tin oxide (ITO(111)) layer as the bottom electrode via pulsed laser deposition. The metastable hexagonal phase was obtained in a narrow range of deposition parameters. High-crystalline h -GdFeO 3 film was obtained at substrate temperature of 780 °C and oxygen pressure of 13 Pa. The a -axis of the h -GdFeO 3 phase is parallel to the [11–2] directions of ITO(111) layer. The h -GdFeO 3 film exhibited weak ferromagnetism with a Néel temperature of 43 K, which was lower than that of the previously reported h - R FeO 3 films ( R  = Dy–Lu, Y and Sc) owing to the longer a -axis.