Magnetic Domain Texture in Fe3O4 Thin Films on SiO2 Nanospheres

Mai Hussein Hamed; Yifan Xu; Hebatalla Elnaggar; Mohamed Zaghloul; Antonio M. Mio; Alicia Backs; Annika Stellhorn; Vitor de Oliveira Lima; Chenyang Yin; Connie Bednarski-Meinke; Nina Juliane Steinke; Oleg Petracic; Thomas Brückel; Thomas Saerbeck; Asma Qdemat

doi:10.1002/adma.202513849

Magnetic Domain Texture in Fe₃O₄ Thin Films on SiO₂ Nanospheres

Mai Hussein Hamed
, Yifan Xu
, Hebatalla Elnaggar
, Mohamed Zaghloul
, Antonio M. Mio
, Alicia Backs
, Annika Stellhorn
, Vitor de Oliveira Lima
, Chenyang Yin
, Connie Bednarski-Meinke
, Nina Juliane Steinke
, Oleg Petracic
, Thomas Brückel
, Thomas Saerbeck
, Asma Qdemat

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Topographically complex interfaces offer a promising route to engineer magnetic textures in oxide thin films, with potential implications for next-generation spintronic and neuromorphic devices. Here, Fe₃O₄ thin films are grown on self-assembled SiO₂ nanospheres to investigate how local curvature, together with polycrystalline morphology, influence magnetic behavior compared to flat films. STEM and GISANS confirm connected growth with preserved lateral ordering, while XMCD-PEEM reveals in-plane magnetic domains that extend across both nanosphere-patterned and flat regions. Despite the low net magnetization of the Fe₃O₄ caps, their domain orientations align with neighboring flat areas, indicating correlated domain behavior across structurally different regions. These findings demonstrate how nanoscale topography and morphology can be leveraged as design parameters to modulate magnetism in complex oxides.

Original language	English
Article number	e13849
Journal	Advanced Materials
Volume	38
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202513849
State	Published - Feb 6 2026
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge R. Dittmann for providing the PLD setup and X-ray Reflectivity (XRR) at PGI7-FZJ. Special thanks to E. Kentzinger and U. Rücker for their help with GALAXI at FZJ. The authors thank E. Kentzinger and S. Tober for the fruitful discussions regarding GISAXS, and N. Seidel for assistance with SEM and GISANS beamtime. Special thanks to J. Buitenhuis for preparing the high-quality SiO2 nanospheres. The authors thank M. Faley for the discussions regarding TEM. The authors acknowledge SOLEIL for the provision of synchrotron radiation facilities and authors would like to thank S. Stanescu, R. Belkhou, and S. Swaraj for assistance in using beamline HERMES. M.H.H. expresses gratitude to W. Esmail for his assistance in developing the PEEM machine learning code. The authors thank K. Friese for the valuable discussions. M.H.H. thanks the Tasso Springer Fellowship provided by JCNS-2 for the funding. A.M.M. acknowledges financial support by the national project, BEYOND NANO Upgrade (CUP G66J17000350007) and by NextGenerationEU, M4C2, within the PNRR project NFFA-DI, CUP B53C22004310006, IR0000015, having benefited from the access provided by CNR-IMM@CT in Catania. The authors acknowledge the provision of beamtime on the D33 and D17 instruments at the Institute Laue-Langevin. H.E. acknowledges the Rubicon funding from NWO (Grant 019.201EN.010 entitled Shining Light on Self-Assembled Bimagnetic Ferrofluids). The authors would like to acknowledge R. Dittmann for providing the PLD setup and X‐ray Reflectivity (XRR) at PGI7‐FZJ. Special thanks to E. Kentzinger and U. Rücker for their help with GALAXI at FZJ. The authors thank E. Kentzinger and S. Tober for the fruitful discussions regarding GISAXS, and N. Seidel for assistance with SEM and GISANS beamtime. Special thanks to J. Buitenhuis for preparing the high‐quality SiO nanospheres. The authors thank M. Faley for the discussions regarding TEM. The authors acknowledge SOLEIL for the provision of synchrotron radiation facilities and authors would like to thank S. Stanescu, R. Belkhou, and S. Swaraj for assistance in using beamline HERMES. M.H.H. expresses gratitude to W. Esmail for his assistance in developing the PEEM machine learning code. The authors thank K. Friese for the valuable discussions. M.H.H. thanks the Tasso Springer Fellowship provided by JCNS‐2 for the funding. A.M.M. acknowledges financial support by the national project, BEYOND NANO Upgrade (CUP G66J17000350007) and by NextGenerationEU, M4C2, within the PNRR project NFFA‐DI, CUP B53C22004310006, IR0000015, having benefited from the access provided by CNR‐IMM@CT in Catania. The authors acknowledge the provision of beamtime on the D33 and D17 instruments at the Institute Laue‐Langevin. H.E. acknowledges the Rubicon funding from NWO (Grant 019.201EN.010 entitled Shining Light on Self‐Assembled Bimagnetic Ferrofluids). 2

Keywords

FeO thin film
SiO nanospheres
XMCD-PEEM
nanoscale topography
oxide interfaces

Access to Document

10.1002/adma.202513849

Cite this

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title = "Magnetic Domain Texture in Fe3O4 Thin Films on SiO2 Nanospheres",

abstract = "Topographically complex interfaces offer a promising route to engineer magnetic textures in oxide thin films, with potential implications for next-generation spintronic and neuromorphic devices. Here, Fe3O4 thin films are grown on self-assembled SiO2 nanospheres to investigate how local curvature, together with polycrystalline morphology, influence magnetic behavior compared to flat films. STEM and GISANS confirm connected growth with preserved lateral ordering, while XMCD-PEEM reveals in-plane magnetic domains that extend across both nanosphere-patterned and flat regions. Despite the low net magnetization of the Fe3O4 caps, their domain orientations align with neighboring flat areas, indicating correlated domain behavior across structurally different regions. These findings demonstrate how nanoscale topography and morphology can be leveraged as design parameters to modulate magnetism in complex oxides.",

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AU - Hamed, Mai Hussein

AU - Xu, Yifan

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AU - Zaghloul, Mohamed

AU - Mio, Antonio M.

AU - Backs, Alicia

AU - Stellhorn, Annika

AU - Lima, Vitor de Oliveira

AU - Yin, Chenyang

AU - Bednarski-Meinke, Connie

AU - Steinke, Nina Juliane

AU - Petracic, Oleg

AU - Brückel, Thomas

AU - Saerbeck, Thomas

AU - Qdemat, Asma

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AB - Topographically complex interfaces offer a promising route to engineer magnetic textures in oxide thin films, with potential implications for next-generation spintronic and neuromorphic devices. Here, Fe3O4 thin films are grown on self-assembled SiO2 nanospheres to investigate how local curvature, together with polycrystalline morphology, influence magnetic behavior compared to flat films. STEM and GISANS confirm connected growth with preserved lateral ordering, while XMCD-PEEM reveals in-plane magnetic domains that extend across both nanosphere-patterned and flat regions. Despite the low net magnetization of the Fe3O4 caps, their domain orientations align with neighboring flat areas, indicating correlated domain behavior across structurally different regions. These findings demonstrate how nanoscale topography and morphology can be leveraged as design parameters to modulate magnetism in complex oxides.

KW - FeO thin film

KW - SiO nanospheres

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