There is renewed interest in rare-earth elements and gadolinium in particular for a range of
studies in coupling physics and applications. However, it is still apparent that synthesis
impacts understanding of the intrinsic magnetic properties of thin gadolinium films,
particularly for thicknesses of topicality. We report studies on 50 nm thick nanogranular
polycrystalline gadolinium thin films on SiO 2 wafers that demonstrate single-crystal like
behavior. The maximum in-plane saturation magnetization at 4 K was found to be 4πM S 4 …