Investigating the influence of extreme tensile strain on the magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 free-standing film

We propose to perform soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) on freestanding CoFe2O4 (CFO_FS) film as a function of film thickness and as a function of applied strain (We presume only 20nm film should be selected). The investigation of the magnetic and electronic structures of CFO_FS with different thicknesses will give us an understanding of how its electronic and magnetic states evolve toward the two-dimensional limit. Then the films will be subjected to mechanical deformation i.e uniaxial strain using a commercial strain cell. The proposed work will shed light on the research of flexible electronics.