J Supercond Nov Magn DOI 10.1007/s10948-016-3936-x ORIGINAL PAPER Magnetic Behaviour of Granular GdMnO 3 Film Puneet Negi 1,2 · H. M. Agrawal 2 · Jitendra Pal Singh 3 · Hemaunt Kumar 2 · R. C. Srivastava 2 · K. Asokan 4 · Keun Hwa Chae 3 Received: 4 October 2016 / Accepted: 23 November 2016 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract The present study deals with the investigation of magnetic properties along with morphological and microstructure analyses of a multiferroic GdMnO 3 film fabricated on Si(100) substrate by the pulsed laser depo- sition technique. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopic analysis suggests that the film is fabricated in the form of diffused layers having different stoichiometric proportions. Raman spectroscopy signifies that few modes present in the film are associated with MnO 6 octahedra and some extra peaks indicating the mixed phase formation in tuning with the Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. Atomic force microscopy confirms the granular nature of the film. Field- cooled and zero-field-cooled thermal magnetization curves show irreversible behaviour extending well above room temperature, which is associated with spin disorder. The presence of Gd +3 state and Mn +3 /Mn +4 mixed states in the uppermost layers of the film was confirmed by near-edge X- ray absorption fine structure. Subsequently, in association with these observations, the film is a weak ferromagnetic at 5 K and even at room temperature.  Puneet Negi puneetphymat@gmail.com 1 Department of Physics, Eternal University, Baru Sahib, Himachal Pradesh 173101, India 2 Department of Physics, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar 263145, India 3 Advanced Analysis Centre, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 02792, South Korea 4 Materials Science Division, Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi 110067, India Keywords Laser deposition · Magnetic properties · Raman spectroscopy · Diffusion · Multilayers 1 Introduction The presence of magnetic behaviour in materials having ferroelectric behaviour is important both from a techno- logical point of view and fundamental aspect [1–3]. At room temperature, GdMnO 3 gadolinium manganite (GMO) is dielectric and paramagnetic. It exhibits an orthorhom- bic perovskite structure. Magnetoelectric behaviour is an important characteristic of this material which is associated with a change of the magnetic phase at low temperature [4– 7]. Various reports signify the finding of low-temperature multiferroic behaviour in GMO [8–11]. These several findings in this material depend on the method of synthesis, control over stoichiometry [7–13], etc. Thus, researches mostly used sol–gel [12, 13], hydrother- mal [14] and solid-state reaction [15] methods for synthe- sizing the GMO nanoparticles and bulk. To deposit thin films of GMO, magnetron sputtering [8, 16] and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [11] techniques were used. How- ever, PLD is the most widely used thin film deposition technique as it provides better control over stoichiome- try [9–11]. Besides the method of synthesis, substrate also plays an important role to determine the properties of the film. The growth, structure and magnetic properties of thin epitaxial GMO multiferroic films were investigated [8]. Films were manufactured on single crystal substrates of neodymium gallate (001) (NdGaO 3 ) and strontium titanate STO (001) by the high-frequency magnetron sputtering method. According to X-ray diffraction analysis and high- resolution electron microscopy data, the growth of the films was epitaxial. In this case, the film orientation relative