Abstract
CoFe2O4 thin film is expected to be used as the spin filter in spintronics. In order to prepare high-quality CoFe2O4 thin films for spin filtering, we studied the influence of oxygen vacancies on the structure and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite (Co1-xFe2+xO4, CFO) films prepared in different atmosphere, and obtained the CFO films without significant soft magnetic phase under optimum Ar and O-2 atmosphere condition. We further investigated the magnetic properties of the CFO/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (CFO/LSMO) bilayers containing various thicknesses of CFO films, and found that the CFO/LSMO bilayers with the ultrathin CFO films primarily display the soft magnetic properties. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.