Abstract: Ferrite films having excellent crystalline and magnetic properties are obtainable without high temperature (>500.degree. C.) processing if an appropriate template layer is deposited on a conventional substrate body (e.g., SrTiO.sub.3, cubic zirconia, Si), and the ferrite is deposited on the annealed template. The template is a spinel-structure metal oxide that has a lattice constant in the range 0.79-0.89 nm, preferably within about 0.015 nm of the lattice constant of the ferrite. Exemplarily, a NiFe.sub.2 O.sub.4 film was deposited at 400.degree. C. on a CoCr.sub.2 O.sub.4 template which had been deposited on (100) SrTiO.sub.3. The magnetization of the ferrite film at 4000 Oe was more than double the magnetization of a similarly deposited comparison ferrite film (NiFe.sub.2 O.sub.4 on SrTiO.sub.3), and was comparable to that of a NiFe.sub.2 O.sub.4 film on SrTiO.sub.3 that was annealed at 1000.degree. C.

Abstract: Articles according to the invention exemplarily comprise a magnetically hard oxide layer in contact with a magnetically soft oxide layer, with spins in the latter at room temperature exchange-coupled to the (oriented) spins in the former. Exemplarily both materials are ferrimagnetic spinel-type oxides, e.g., CoFe.sub.2 O.sub.4 /(Mn, Zn)Fe.sub.2 O.sub.4. Material combinations according to the invention can be advantageously used in high frequency circuit components such as inductors, since the magnetically soft layer can be in a substantially single domain state even after exposure to a magnetic field of considerable strength, e.g., up to about 500 Oe.

Abstract: Applicants have discovered that films of conductively doped GaInO.sub.3 grown on substrates by pulsed laser deposition have conductivity comparable to conventional wide band-gap transparent conductors while exhibiting superior light transmission, particularly in the green and blue wavelength regions of the visible spectrum. Substrate temperatures ranged from room temperature to 350.degree. C. in an ambient containing oxygen at partial pressure in the range 0.1 mTorr to 100 mTorr. The preferred laser source was an excimer laser operating in the deep ultraviolet.