Structural, Magnetic, and Optical Properties of Nanostructured Cu1–xFexO Thin Films

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated the consequence of the Fe addition on the structure, optical, magnetic, and electrical properties of Cu1–xFexO (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.25) thin films produced by spray pyrolysis. All the samples exhibited a single CuO monoclinic structure up to x = 0.2. The apparition of the secondary α-Fe2O3 phase for x = 0.25 alongside CuO indicates a solubility of about 20% Fe in the host CuO matrix. With increased Fe content and dislocation density, the crystallite size reduced from approximately 46 to 33 nm, the bandgap dropped from 3.075 eV for x = 0 to 2.974 eV for x = 0.25, and the CuO unit cell volume contracted. The saturation magnetisation rises from 0.166 to 0.603 emu, and the coercivity ranges between 17.6 and 231.5 Oe. The squareness ratio varies from 0.108 to 0.497, suggesting that the prepared films are pseudo-single domains. The electrical resistivity decreases linearly with increasing Fe content from 42.1 to 5.8 kΩ cm, and the electrical conductivity reaches 0.172 Ω–1 cm–1 for x = 0.25.