Shenzhen Advanced Institute and others have developed a new type of flexible self-supporting magnetic film

【 Instrument R&D of Instrumentation Network 】Recently, the Research Center for Nanometer Control and Biomechanics of the Institute of Medical Technology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences has made progress in the field of flexible self-supporting magnetic films. The related achievements are Highly Flexible and Twistable Freestanding Single Crystalline Magnetite Film with Robust Magnetism ("Self-supporting ferroferric oxide single crystal thin film with high flexibility, twistable and stable magnetism") was published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials ("Advanced Functional Materials"). Guest Ph.D students An Feng, Ph.D. Qu Ke, and Associate Researcher Zhong Gaokuo are the co-first authors of the paper, Shenzhen Gaoyuan Nano-Control Research Center, Associate Researcher Zhong Gaokuo, Professor of School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University Xie Shuhong, Gao Peng, a professor at the School of Physics of Peking University, are co-corresponding authors.

Magnetic films with a high degree of flexibility and a large degree of freedom in twisting are essential for flexible electronic applications in wearable devices and implantable systems. However, at present, the realization of the flexibility of high-quality single crystal magnetic materials still faces great challenges. Based on this, the functional oxide material and device research team of the Nano Control Research Center of Shenzhen Advanced Institute introduced the water-soluble material Sr3Al2O6 as a sacrificial layer, and the SrTiO3/Sr3Al2O6/Fe3O4 heterostructure was prepared by the pulse laser deposition process, which was obtained by dissolving the Sr3Al2O6 sacrificial layer. High quality self-supporting Fe3O4 single crystal thin film. The experimental results of the system confirmed that the self-supporting Fe3O4 film has excellent mechanical flexibility, in which the bending radius is as small as 7.18 microns and the torsion angle can reach 122o (no damage). In addition, under large bending deformation, the self-supporting Fe3O4 film can maintain stable magnetic properties. This work provides a feasible solution for the flexibility of magnetic materials, and can be widely used in the preparation of various flexible magnetic materials, which helps to promote the development of flexible micro-nano functional devices.

The above work was supported by the National Key R&D Program Nanotechnology Key Project and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.