It is shown theoretically that a giant magnetoelectric susceptibility exceeding 10^-6 s/m may be achieved in the ferromagnetic/ferroelectric epitaxial systems via the magnetization rotation induced by an electric field applied to the substrate. The predicted magnetoelectric anomaly results from the strain-driven spin-reorientation transitions in ferromagnetic films, which take place at experimentally accessible misfit strains in CoFe2O4 and Ni films.
We show that misfit strain originated from the film-substrate lattice mismatch strongly increases the value of the quadratic magnetoelectric coupling. The giant magnetoelectric coupling, size effects and misfit strain cause strong changes of ferroic films phase diagrams at zero external magnetic and electric fields, in particular, the transformation of antiferromagnetic phase into ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic ones for compressive or tensile misfit strains correspondingly as well as thickness induced paramagnetic or/and paraelectric phases appearance. Ferromagnetism appearance and magnetoelec…
Using first-principles density functional theory calculations, we discover an anomalously large bi-axial strain-induced octahedral rotation axis reorientation in orthorhombic perovskites with tendency towards rhombohedral symmetry. The transition between crystallographically equivalent (isosymmetric) structures with different octahedral rotation magnitudes originates from strong strain--octahedral rotation coupling available to perovskites and the energetic hierarchy among competing octahedral tilt patterns. By elucidating these criteria, we suggest many functional perovskites would exhibit th…
The direct magnetoelectric (ME) effect mediated by lattice strains induced in a ferroelectric film by a ferromagnetic substrate is evaluated using first-principles-based calculations. To that end, the strain sensitivity of ferroelectric polarization and the film permittivity are calculated as a function of the in-plane biaxial strain for Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 films under various depolarizing fields. It is found that the ME voltage coefficient varies nonmonotonically with this strain and may reach giant values exceeding 100 Vcm-1 Oe-1 over a strain range that can be controlled through the electric…
This paper reports the development of a methodology combining microstrip ferromagnetic resonance (MS-FMR) and digital image correlation (DIC) in order to silmuteanously measure the voltage-induced strains and the magnetic resonance in artificial magnetoelectric heterostructures (magnetic films/piezoelectric substrate? or magnetic films/flexible substrate/piezoelectric actuator ?). The overall principle of the technique and the related analytical modelling are described. It is powerful to estimate the magnetostriction coefficient of ferromagnetic thin films and can be used to determine the effe…
Magnetoelectric coupling terms are derived in piezoelectric/magnetostrictive (multiferroic) thin film heterostructures using Landau-Ginzburg free energy expansions in terms of strain and by considering strain boundary conditions between the two materials. Then, a general effective medium method for solving for the complete electromagnetic susceptibility tensor of such heterostructures is used to calculate the ferromagnetic resonance frequency in a BaTiO$_3$/NiFe$_2$O$_4$ superlattice. This method differs from existing methods for treating magnetoelectric heterostructures since the magnetic and…
The lattice strain and domain switching behaviour was investigated as a function of cyclic field and grain orientation for a pseudorhombohedral composition of the high Curie point piezoelectric system xBiScO3 - (1-x)PbTiO3 (x = 0.40) by in-situ electric field diffraction technique with high energy synchrotron x-rays. Along the field direction, the system exhibts five time large strain along 100 as compared to the 111 direction. A one-to-one correspondence between the 200 lattice strain and the 111 domain switching suggests a strong correlation between the two phenomena.
We report a giant linear magnetoelectric coupling in strained BiMnO3 thin films in which the disorder associated with an islanded morphology gives rise to extrinsic relaxor ferroelectricity that is not present in bulk centrosymmetric ferromagnetic crystalline BiMnO3. Strain associated with the disorder is treated as a local variable which couples to the two ferroic order parameters, magnetization M and polarization P. A straightforward "gas under a piston" thermodynamic treatment explains the observed correlated temperature dependencies of the product of susceptibilities and the magnetoelectri…
The direct magnetoelectric (ME) effect resulting from the polarization changes induced in a ferroelectric film by the application of a magnetic field to a ferromagnetic substrate is described using the nonlinear thermodynamic theory. It is shown that the ME response strongly depends on the initial strain state of the film. The ME polarization coefficient of the heterostructures involving Terfenol-D substrates and compressively strained lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films, which stabilize in the out-of-plane polarization state, is found to be comparable to that of bulk PZT/Terfenol-D laminate c…
Sintered samples of a spinel oxide LiFeCr4O8, where Cr3+ and Fe3+ ions have localized moments, were found to show a large magnetic-field-induced volume increase approaching 500 ppm by applying a magnetic field of 9 T. This large volume increase appeared only at around 30 K. At 30 K, a spin-reorientation transition from ferrimagnetic to conical order occurs, giving rise to this large volume increase. The coexistence of ferrimagnetic and conical phases at this transition was found to be important, suggesting that such a large magnetic-field-induced volume change can be realized at various magnet…
We investigate the influence of a well-defined reversible biaxial strain <=0.12 % on the magnetization (M) of epitaxial ferromagnetic manganite films. M has been recorded depending on temperature, strain and magnetic field in 20 - 50 nm thick films. This is accomplished by reversibly compressing the isotropic in-plane lattice parameter of the rhombohedral piezoelectric 0.72PMN-0.28PT (001) substrates by application of an electric field E <= 12 kV cm-1. The magnitude of the total variable in-plane strain has been derived. Strain-induced shifts of the ferromagnetic Curie temperature (Tc) of up t…
Magnetoelectric coupling between magnetic and electric dipoles is one of the cornerstones of modern physics towards developing the most energy-efficient magnetic data storage. Conventionally, magnetoelectric coupling is achieved in single-phase multiferroics or in magnetoelectric composite nanostructures consisting of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric/piezoelectric materials. Here, we demonstrate an electric-field-induced strain-mediated magnetoelectric effect in ultrathin CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junction employing non-piezoelectric material, which is a vitally important structure for spintron…
We present a combined experimental-theoretical study demonstrating the role of site disorder, off-stoichiometry and strain on the optical behavior of magnetoelectric gallium ferrite. Optical properties such as band-gap, refractive indices and dielectric constants were experimentally obtained by performing ellipsometric studies over the energy range 0.8 eV to 4.2 eV on pulsed laser deposited epitaxial thin films of stoichiometric gallium ferrite with b-axis orientation and the data was compared with theoretical results. Calculations on the ground state structure show that the optical activity i…
We use symmetry analysis to show that the G, C and A-type antiferromagnetic Pnma perovskites can exhibit magnetoelectric (ME) responses when a ferroelectric instability is induced with epitaxial strain. Using first-principles calculations we compute the values of the allowed ME response in strained CaMnO3 as a model system. Our results show that large linear and non-linear ME responses are present and can diverge when close to the ferroelectric phase transition. By decomposing the electronic and ionic contributions, we explore the detailed mechanism of the ME response.
Magnetic axis rotation (MAR) in ferromagnetic (FM) layers is crucial for strain-mediated converse magnetoelectric coupling. Employing the density functional theory (DFT), we computationally study the magnetic anisotropy of selected deformed FM materials such as body-centered iron. The results show that the short axis is more energy-favorable at high in-plane strain difference than previously predicted phenomenologically. This anomalous trend and the complex energy behaviors at different strain conditions explain why spin-lattice dynamics (SLD) simulation does not produce in-plane MAR and imply…
A polycrystalline and single-crystal samples of near-stoichiometric Ni2MnGa alloys have been investigated. It was confirmed that martensite short crystallographic axis (c-axis) is the easy axis of magnetization. The reversible reorientation of the easy magnetization direction of martensite samples after 5% compression is found. The same reversible reorientation of the easy magnetization direction under applied magnetic field occurs in the single-crystal samples. The field-induced reorientation of the easy magnetization direction is accompanied with more than 4% of sample's dimension change. Ab…
We present a phenomenological scheme to study the size-dependent electric voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic (FM)/ferroelectric (FE) heterostructures. The FM layers are either metallic Fe(001), Ni(001), Co(0001), or half-metallic (La, Sr)MnO3 films. Two magnetoelectric mechanisms, i.e., interface-charge and strain-mediated couplings, are considered. We show that the interface-charge mediated coupling is the main mechanism for the magnetoelectic coupling when the FM film thickness is below a certain transition thickness dtr while the strain-mediated coupling dominates above…
The mechanical behavior of magnetoelectric transducers consisting of piezoelectric-magnetostrictive bilayers has been modeled. The effect of the aspect ratio of the transducer as well as the influence of non-active surrounding layers has been modeled, including a passivation layer surrounding the active device, a clamping layer above the active device, and an interfacial layer that might be inserted between the magnetostrictive and the piezoelectric layers. Strategies to control and maximize the strain magnitude and orientation based on material selection and device design are proposed.
In this article the mechanism of the linear magnetoelectric (ME) effect in the rhombohedral multiferroic BiFeO$_3$ is considered. The study is based on the symmetry approach of the GinzburgLandau type, in which polarization, antiferrodistortion, and antiferromagnetic momentum vectors are viewed as ordering parameters. We demonstrate that the linear ME effect in BFO is caused by reorientation of the antiferrodistortion vector in either electric or magnetic field. The numerical estimations, which show quantitative agreement with the results of the recent measurements in film samples, have been p…
Multiferroics with the coexistence of ferroelectric and ferromagnetic orders are ideal candidates for magnetoelectric applications. Unfortunately, only very few ferroelectric-ferromagnetic multiferroics (with low magnetic critical temperature) were discovered. Here we perform first principles calculations to investigate the effects of the epitaxial strain on the properties of BiMnO3 films grown along the pseudocubic [001] direction. Unlike the ground state with the centrosymmetric C2/c space group in bulk, we reveal that the tensile epitaxial strain stabilizes the ferromagnetic and ferroelectr…
The exploration of electric field controlled magnetism has come under scrutiny for its intriguing magnetoelectric phenomenon as well as technological advances in spintronics. Herein, the tremendous effect of an epitaxial strain on voltage-controlled perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (VPMA) is demonstrated in a transition-metal/ferromagnet/MgO (TM/FM/MgO) heterostructure from first-principles electronic structure computation. By tuning the epitaxial strain in Ta/Fe/MgO as a model system of TM/FM/MgO, we find distinctly different behaviours of VPMA from V- to Λ-shape trends with a substantially …
Electric-field control of magnetism without electric currents potentially revolutionizes spintronics towards ultralow power. Here by using mechanically coupled phase field simulations, we computationally demonstrate the application of the strain-mediated magnetoelectric effect for the electric-field control of magnetic states in heterostructure. In the model heterostructure constituted of the soft nanomagnet Co and the piezoelectric substrate PMN-PT, both the volatility of magnetic states and the magnetization switching dynamics excited by the electric field are explored. It is found that an e…
We study theoretically the multiferroic dynamics in a composite one-dimensional system consisting of BaTiO3 multiferroically coupled to an iron chain. The method treats the magnetization and the polarization as thermodynamic quantities describable via a combination of the Landau-Lifshits- Gilbert and the Ginzburg-Landau dynamics coupled via an additional term in the total free energy density. This term stems from the multiferroic interaction at the interface. For a wide range of strengths of this coupling we predict the possibility of obtaining a well-developed hysteresis in the ferromagnetic …
A current challenge in the field of magnetoelectric multiferroics is to identify systems that allow a controlled tuning of states displaying distinct magnetoelectric responses. Here we show that the multiferroic ground state of the archetypal multiferroic TbMnO3 is dramatically modified by epitaxial strain. Neutron diffraction reveals that in highly strained films the magnetic order changes from the bulk-like incommensurate bc-cycloidal structure to commensurate magnetic order. Concomitant with the modification of the magnetic ground state, optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) and electric…
Strain-mediated magnetoelectric (ME) coupling in ferroelectric (FE) / ferromagnetic (FM) heterostructures offers a unique opportunity for both fundamental scientific research and low power multifunctional devices. Relaxor-ferroelectrics, like (1-x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-(x)PbTiO3 (PMN-xPT), are ideal FE layer candidates due to their giant piezoelectricity. But thin films of PMN-PT suffer from substrate clamping which substantially reduces piezoelectric in-plane strains. Here we present the first demonstration of low voltage ME coupling in an all-thin-film heterostructure which utilizes the anisotrop…
The self-polarization of PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 thin film is switched by changing film thickness through the competition between the strain relaxation-induced flexoelectric fields and the interfacial effects. Without an applied electric field, this reversal of self-polarization is exploited to control the magnetic properties of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 by the competition/cooperation between the charge-mediated and the strain-mediated effects. Scanning transmission electron microscopy, polarized near edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and half-integer diffraction measurements are employed to decode this int…
The dependencies on strain and oxygen vacancies of the ferroelectric polarization and the weak ferromagnetic magnetization in the multiferroic material bismuth ferrite, BiFeO_3, are investigated using first principles density functional theory calculations. The electric polarization is found to be rather independent of strain, in striking contrast to most conventional perovskite ferroelectrics. It is also not significantly affected by oxygen vacancies, or by the combined presence of strain and oxygen vacancies. The magnetization is also unaffected by strain, however the incorporation of oxygen…
We have investigated the magnetoelectric and magnetodielectric response in FeVO$_4$, which exhibits a change in magnetic structure coincident with ferroelectric ordering at $T_{N2}$$\approx$15 K. Using symmetry considerations, we construct a model for the possible magnetoelectric coupling in this system, and present a discussion of the allowed spin structures in FeVO$_4$. Based on this model, in which the spontaneous polarization is caused by a trilinear spin-phonon interaction, we experimentally explore the magnetoelectric coupling in FeVO$_4$ thin films through measurements of the electric f…
Development and Application of a Magnetoelectric Coupling Measurement System for Strain-Mediated Effects
UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research（UGC-DAE 科学研究联盟）；Maharaja Institute of Technology Mysore（迈索尔 Maharaja 理工学院）；Institute of Sciences, SAGE University（SAGE 大学理学院）；Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology（Raja Ramanna 先进技术中心）
Our measured dielectric constant and mechanical response of multiferroic BiFeO3 indicate four phase transitions below room temperature. Features correlate with those reported at 50K (from a peak in the zero-field-cooled magnetic susceptibility) and 230K (from splitting between field-cooled and zero-field-cooled magnetic data[1], and 200K (from magnon light scattering cross sections[2]). The primary order parameter is not the polarization in any of the low-T transitions. Instead, the transition near 230 K shows strong elastic coupling, while that at 50K is fundamentally magnetic, but magnetostr…
In this study we show from first principles calculations the possibility to induce multiferroic and magnetoelectric functional properties in the Pnma NaMnF3 fluoroperovskite by means of epitaxial strain engineering. Surprisingly, we found a very strong non-linear polarization-strain coupling that drives an atypical amplification of the ferroelectric polarization for either compression or expansion of the cell. This property is associated with a non-collinear antiferromagnetic ordering, which induces a weak ferromagnetism and thus, making the strained NaMnF3 fluoroperovskite multiferroic. We al…
We introduce a continuum model for a fibre reinforced material in which the reference orientation of the fibre may evolve with time, under the influence of external stimuli. The model is formulated in the framework of large strain hyperelasticity and the kinematics of the continuum is described by both a position vector and by a remodelling tensor which, in the present context, is an orthogonal tensor representing the fibre reorientation process. By imposing suitable thermodynamical restrictions on the constitutive equation, we obtain an evolution equation of the remodelling tensor governed by…
In-plane temperature dependent dielectric behavior of BiFeO3 (BFO) as-grown thin films show diffuse but prominent phase transitions near 450 (+/-10) K and 550 K with dielectric loss temperature dependences that suggest skin layer effects. The 450 K anomalies are near the "transition" first reported by Polomska et al. [Phys. Stat. Sol. 23, 567 (1974)]. The 550 K anomalies coincide with the surface phase transition recently reported [Xavi et al. PRL 106, 236101 (2011)]. In addition, anomalies are found at low temperatures: After several experimental cycles the dielectric loss shows a clear relax…
Strain-coupled magnetoelectric (ME) phenomena in piezoelectric / ferromagnetic thin-film bilayers are a promising paradigm for sensors and information storage devices, where strain is utilized to manipulate the magnetization of the ferromagnetic film. In-plane magnetization rotation with an electric field across the film thickness has been challenging due to the virtual elimination of in-plane piezoelectric strain by substrate clamping, and to the requirement of anisotropic in-plane strain in two-terminal devices. We have overcome both of these limitations by fabricating lithographically patte…
The effects of applied load on the formation and reorientation of delta hydrides in alpha-zirconium matrix are studied by a multiphase field model. Simulations with only one hydride seed indicate that the hydride reorientation occurs only when a tensile or compressive strain of ~0.02 is applied along [112-0] (hoop or circumferential direction) or [0001] (radial direction aligned with the basal pole direction), respectively. However, two-seed and multi-seed hydride simulations show the significant influence of neighboring hydrides on the required load for reorientation, reducing it by more than…
Magnetoelectric coupling permits a magnetic order parameter to be addressed electrically or vice versa, and could find use in data storage, field sensors and actuators. Coupling constants for single phase materials such as chromium dioxide, boracites and manganites are typically as low as 10^{-12} - 10^{-9} s/m, e.g. because the polarisations and magnetisations are small. Two phase multiferroics with strain mediated coupling, such as laminates, composites and epitaxial nanostructures, are more promising because each phase may be independently optimised. The resulting magnetoelectric switching …
We study the magnetoelectric and electrocaloric response of strain-engineered, multiferroic SrMnO$_3$, using a phenomenological Landau theory with all parameters obtained from \emph{first-principles}-based calculations. This allows to make realistic and materials-specific predictions about the magnitude of the corresponding effects. We find that in the vicinity of a tetracritical point, where magnetic and ferroelectric phase boundaries intersect, an electric field has a huge effect on the antiferromagnetic order, corresponding to a magnetoelectric response several orders of magnitude larger th…
We introduce the notion of inverse effect of magnetostriction for magnetostrictive/piezoelectric heterostructures and study this effect theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the inverse effect of magnetostriction may crucially contribute to the mechanism of magnetoelectric coupling. It is shown that the studied effect essentially modifies the saturation magnetostriction of the whole structure as compared to its magnetic phase bulk and also induces an additional magnetic anisotropy. Our consideration provides useful insight into the fundamental issue of strain-mediated magnetoelect…
The thermodynamic, magnetic, dielectric, and magnetoelectric properties of HoFe$_3$(BO$_3$)$_4$ and Ho$_{0.5}$Nd$_{0.5}$Fe$_3$(BO$_3$)$_4$ are investigated. Both compounds show a second order Neél transition above 30 K and a first order spin reorientation transition below 10 K. HoFe$_3$(BO$_3$)$_4$ develops a spontaneous electrical polarization below the Neél temperature (T$_N$) which is diminished in external magnetic fields. No magnetoelectric effect could be observed in HoFe$_3$(BO$_3$)$_4$. In contrast, the solid solution Ho$_{0.5}$Nd$_{0.5}$Fe$_3$(BO$_3$)$_4$ exhibits both, a spontaneous …
Magnetoelectric composites are an important class of multiferroic materials that pave the way towards a new generation of multifunctional devices directly integrable in data storage technology and spintronics. This study focuses on strain-mediated electrical manipulation of magnetization in an extrinsic multiferroic. The composite includes 5 nm or 60 nm Fe$_{81}$Ga$_{19}$ thin films coupled to a piezoelectric (011)-PMN-PZT. The magnetization reversal study reveals a converse magnetoelectric coefficient $α_\mathrm{CME,max} \approx 2.7 \times {10^{-6}}$ s.m$^{-1}$ at room temperature. This repor…
The quantitative understanding of converse magnetoelectric effects, i.e., the variation of the magnetization as a function of an applied electric field, in extrinsic multiferroic hybrids is a key prerequisite for the development of future spintronic devices. We present a detailed study of the strain-mediated converse magnetoelectric effect in ferrimagnetic Fe3O4 thin films on ferroelectric BaTiO3 substrates at room temperature. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with numerical simulation based on a two-region model. This demonstrates that the electric field induced changes of …
The symmetry-induced magnetic anisotropy due to monoatomic steps at strained Ni films is determined using results of first - principles relativistic full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) calculations and an analogy with the Néel model. We show that there is a magnetoelastic anisotropy contribution to the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy energy in the vicinal plane of a stepped surface. In addition to the known spin-direction reorientation transition at a flat Ni/Cu(001) surface, we propose a spin-direction reorientation transition in the vicinal plane for a stepped Ni/Cu surface d…
Perovskite structure SrMnO$_3$ is a rare example of a multiferroic material where strain-tuning and/or cation substitution could lead to coinciding magnetic and ferroelectric ordering temperatures, which would then promise strong magnetoelectric coupling effects. Here, we establish the temperature and strain dependent ferroic phase diagram of SrMnO$_3$ using first-principles-based effective Hamiltonians. All parameters of these Hamiltonians are calculated using density functional theory, i.e., no fitting to experimental data is required. Temperature dependent properties are then obtained from …
It is well known that the magnetic anisotropy in a compressively-strained Mn-doped GaAs film changes from perpendicular to parallel with increasing hole concentration $p$. We study this reorientation transition at T=0 in a quantum well with Mn impurities confined to a single plane. With increasing $p$, the angle $θ$ that minimizes the energy $E$ increases continuously from 0 (perpendicular anisotropy) to $π/2$ (parallel anisotropy) within some range of $p$. The shape of $\Emin (p)$ suggests that the quantum well becomes phase separated with regions containing low hole concentrations and perpen…
The existence of magnetostriction in bulk BiFeO3 is still a matter of investigation and it is also an issue to investigate the magnetostriction effect in nano BiFeO3. Present work demonstrates the existence of magnetostrictive strain in superparamagnetic BiFeO3 nanoparticles at room temperature and the magnetoelectric coupling properties in composite form with P(VDFTrFE). Despite few reports on the magnetostriction effect in bulk BiFeO3 evidenced by the indirect method, the direct method (strain gauge) was employed in this work to examine the magnetostriction of superparamagnetic BiFeO3. In ad…
Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ is an insulating skyrmion-host material with a magnetoelectric coupling giving rise to an electric polarization with a characteristic dependence on the magnetic field $\vec H$. We report magnetic force microscopy imaging of the helical real-space spin structure on the surface of a bulk single crystal of Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$. In the presence of a magnetic field, the helimagnetic order in general reorients and acquires a homogeneous component of the magnetization, resulting in a conical arrangement at larger fields. We investigate this reorientation process at a temperature of 10~K for …
The strain dependent functional properties of epitaxial transition metal oxide films can be significantly modified via substrate selection. However, large lattice mismatches preclude dislocation-free epitaxial growth on ferroelectric substrates, whose strain states are modified by applied electric fields. Here we overcome this mismatch problem by depositing an epitaxial film of ferromagnetic La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 on a single crystal substrate of well lattice matched SrTiO3 via a film of SrRuO3 that we subsequently dissolved, permitting the transfer of unstrained La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 to a ferroelectric subs…
Cr$_2$O$_3$ is the archetypal magnetoelectric (ME) material, which has a linear coupling between electric and magnetic polarizations. Quadratic ME effects are forbidden for the magnetic point group of Cr$_2$O$_3$, due to space-time inversion symmetry. In Cr$_2$O$_3$ films grown by sputtering, we find a signature of a quadratic ME effect that is not found in bulk single crystals. We use Raman spectroscopy and magetization measurements to deduce the removal of space-time symmetry, and corroborate the emergence of the quadratic ME effect. We propose that meta-stable site-selective trace dopants r…
Octahedral distortion plays a key role in engineering the physical properties of heterostructures composed of perovskite oxides. We observe a strong in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in a strain-enabled multiferroic EuTiO3 thin film epitaxially grown on a (110)o DyScO3 substrate. First principles calculations show that the magnetic anisotropy is closely correlated with the uniaxial TiO6 octahedral tilting and the ferroelectric polarization of the film, indicating potential strong magnetoelectric coupling in the strain-engineered multiferroic system.
By means of spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy (SPLEEM) we show that the magnetic easy-axis of one to three atomic-layer thick cobalt films on ruthenium crystals changes its orientation twice during deposition: one-monolayer and three-monolayer thick films are magnetized in-plane, while two-monolayer films are magnetized out-of-plane, with a Curie temperature well above room temperature. Fully-relativistic calculations based on the Screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (SKKR) method demonstrate that only for two-monolayer cobalt films the interplay between strain, surface and interface ef…
A small fraction of phosphorus (up to 10 %) was incorporated in ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As epilayers grown on a GaAs substrate. P incorporation allows reducing the epitaxial strain or even change its sign, resulting in strong modifications of the magnetic anisotropy. In particular a reorientation of the easy axis toward the growth direction is observed for high P concentration. It offers an interesting alternative to the metamorphic approach, in particular for magnetization reversal experiments where epitaxial defects stongly affect the domain wall propagation.
