Epitaxial electrodeposition of Fe3O4 on single-crystal Au(111)

An epitaxial film of Fe3O4 was electrodeposited from aqueous solution onto single-crystal Au(111) at 90 °C. The process did not require thermal annealing to initiate crystallization. The epitaxial film had a (111) out-of-plane orientation and two types of in-plane orientation (parallel and antiparallel with respect to the substrate). The electrochemical deposition of Fe3O4 may be a promising way to prepare epitaxial ferromagnetic-semiconductor and ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic sandwich structures and multilayers for spin-polarized devices.