A method of making a ferrite thin film is provided in which a portion of the iron ions in the ferrite are substituted by ions of at least one other metal. The substituting ions occupy both tetrahedral and octahedral sites in the unit cell of the ferrite crystal. The method includes placing each of a plurality of targets, one at a time, in close proximity to a substrate in a defined sequence; ablating the target thus placed using laser pulses, thereby causing ions from the target to deposit on the substrate; repeating these steps, thereby generating a film; and annealing the film in the presence of oxygen. The plurality of targets, the sequence of their ablation, and the number of laser pulses that each target is subjected to, are selected so as to allow the substituting ions to occupy both tetrahedral and octahedral sites in the unit cell.