Pliable and lightweight thin-film magnets performing at room temperature are indispensable ingredients of the next-generation flexible electronics. However, conventional inorganic magnets based on f-block metals are rigid and heavy, whereas the emerging organic/molecular magnets are inferior regarding their magnetic characteristics. Here we fuse the best features of the two worlds, by tailoring ε-Fe2O3-terephthalate superlattice thin films with inbuilt flexibility due to the thin organic layers intimately embedded within the ferrimagnetic ε-Fe2O3 matrix; these films are also sustainable as they do not contain rare heavy metals. The films are grown with sub-nanometer-scale accuracy from gaseous precursors using the atomic/molecular layer deposition (ALD/MLD) technique. Tensile tests confirm the expected increased flexibility with increasing organic content reaching a 3-fold decrease in critical bending radius (2.4 ± 0.3 mm) as compared to ε-Fe2O3 thin film (7.7 ± 0.3 mm). Most remarkably, these hybrid ε-Fe2O3-terephthalate films do not compromise the exceptional intrinsic magnetic characteristics of the ε-Fe2O3 phase, in particular the ultrahigh coercive force (∼2 kOe) even at room temperature.
Keywords: atomic layer deposition; flexible magnet; molecular layer deposition; thin film; ε-Fe2O3 organic superlattice.