Intrinsic magnetic properties of hexagonal LuFeO3 and the effects of nonstoichiometry

We used oxide molecular-beam epitaxy in a composition-spread geometry to deposit hexagonal LuFeO3 (h-LuFeO3) thin films with a monotonic variation in the Lu/Fe cation ratio, creating a mosaic of samples that ranged from iron rich to lutetium rich. We characterized the effects of composition variation with x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry. After identifying growth conditions leading to stoichiometric film growth, an additional sample was grown with a rotating sample stage. From this stoichiometric sample, we determined stoichiometric h-LuFeO3 to have a T-N = 147 K and M-s = 0.018 mu(B)/Fe. (C) 2014 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.