Polar magnetic oxide HoCrWO$_6$ is synthesized and its crystal structure, magnetic structure, and thermodynamic properties are investigated. HoCrWO$_6$ forms the polar crystal structure (space group Pna2$_1$ (#33)) due to the cation ordering of W$^{6+}$ and Cr$^{3+}$. There is an antiferromagnetic transition at TN = 24.5 K along with the magnetic entropy change (~5 J.Kg.$^{-1}$K$^{-1}$ at 70 kOe). Neutron diffraction measurement indicates that both Cr and Ho sublattices are ordered with the moment of 2.32(5)$μ_B$ and 8.7(4)$μ_B$ at 2 K, respectively. While Cr forms A-type collinear antiferromagnetic (AFM) structure with magnetic moment along the $b$ axis, Ho sublattice orders in a non-coplanar AFM arrangement. A comparison with isostructural DyFeWO$_6$ and DyCrWO$_6$ indicates that the magnetic structure of this family of compounds is controlled by the presence or absence of eg electrons in the transition metal sublattice.
In the framework of the modern theory of polarization, we rigorously establish the microscopic nature of the electric displacement field D. In particular, we show that the longitudinal component of D is preserved at a coherent and insulating interface. To motivate and elucidate our derivation, we use the example of LAO/STO interfaces and superlattices, where the validity of the above conservation law is not immediately obvious. Our results generalize the "locality principle" of constrained-D density functional theory to the first-principles modeling of charge-mismatched systems.
A modulation-doping approach to control the carrier density of the high-density electron gas at a prototype polar/non-polar oxide interface is presented. It is shown that the carrier density of the electron gas at a GdTiO3/SrTiO3 interface can be reduced by up to 20% from its maximum value (~ 3x10^14 cm^-2) by alloying the GdTiO3 layer with Sr. The Seebeck coefficient of the two-dimensional electron gas increases concurrently with the decrease in its carrier density. The experimental results provide insight into the origin of charge carriers at oxide interfaces exhibiting a polar discontinuity…
The discovery of conducting two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) and magnetism at the interface between insulating nonmagnetic oxides, as exemplified by the polar LaAlO3 and nonpolar SrTiO3 has raised prospects for attaining interfacial functionalities absent in the component materials. Yet, the microscopic origin of such emergent phenomena remains unclear, posing obstacles to design of improved functionalities. Using first principles defect calculations, we reveal a unifying polarity-induced defect mechanism for both conductivity and magnetism at polar-nonpolar interfaces of nonmagnetic insula…
Two-dimensional charge carrier accumulation at oxide heterointerfaces presents a paradigm shift for oxide electronics. Like a capacitor, interfacial charge buildup couples to an electric field across the dielectric medium. To prevent the so-called polar catastrophe, several charge screening mechanisms emerge, including polar distortions and interfacial intermixing which reduce the sharpness of the interface. Here, we examine how atomic intermixing at oxide interfaces affect the balance between polar distortions and electric potential across the dielectric medium. We find that intermixing moves…
The single crystal study of CaBaCo4O7, a non collinear ferrimagnet (TC=64K), with a polar orthorhombic space group (Pbn21) between 4 K and 293 K, shows the appearance below TC of a large electric polarization along its c axis, reaching 17mC.m-2 at 10K. At 62.5K, a magnetic field driven giant variation of polarization, P(9T)-P(0T)=8mC.m-2, is observed. Moreover, the present magnetoelectric measurements, are fully consistent with the m'm2' magnetic point group, strongly supporting that this oxide is also ferrotoroidic. This ferrimagnetic oxide, which belongs to the '114' structural family, opens…
The recent observation of ferroelectricity in the metastable phases of binary metal oxides, such as HfO2, ZrO2, Hf0.5Zr0.5O2, and Ga2O3, has garnered a lot of attention. These metastable ferroelectric phases are typically stabilized through epitaxial growth, alloying, or defect engineering. Here, we propose hole doping plays a key role in stabilizing the polar phases in binary metal oxides. Using first-principles density-functional-theory calculations, we show that holes in these oxides mainly occupy one of the two oxygen sublattices. This hole localization, which is more pronounced in the pol…
Polar discontinuities and redox reactions provide alternative paths to create two-dimensional electron liquids (2DELs) at oxide interfaces. Herein, we report high mobility 2DELs at interfaces involving SrTiO3 (STO) achieved using polar La7/8Sr1/8MnO3 (LSMO) buffer layers to manipulate both polarities and redox reactions from disordered overlayers grown at room temperature. Using resonant x-ray reflectometry experiments, we quantify redox reactions from oxide overlayers on STO as well as polarity induced electronic reconstruction at epitaxial LSMO/STO interfaces. The analysis reveals how these …
The predictions of the polar catastrophe scenario to explain the occurrence of a metallic interface in heterostructures of the solid solution(LaAlO$_3$)$_{x}$(SrTiO$_3$)$_{1-x}$ (LASTO:x) grown on (001) SrTiO$_3$ were investigated as a function of film thickness and $x$. The films are insulating for the thinnest layers, but above a critical thickness, $t_c$, the interface exhibits a constant finite conductivity which depends in a predictable manner on $x$. It is shown that $t_c$ scales with the strength of the built-in electric field of the polar material, and is immediately understandable in …
We report a study on the interface between polar high-k materials and the Si(001)-(2X1) reconstructed surface with LaAlO3 taken as a prototype material. The construction of the interface is based on the prior growth of metal lines followed by oxidation, whose stability against oxygen coverage is studied. Electronic structure calculations within the Density Functional Theory framework help in building the interface and understanding its bonding structure. Moreover, we computed a conduction band offset of 1.9 eV, in agreement with electronic applications requirement. The results may provide a gu…
The main obstacles in realizing diluted magnetic oxide (DMO) in spintronics are the unknown electronic structures associated with its high TC ferromagnetism and spin polarized current and how to manipulate desired electronic structures by fabrication techniques. We demonstrate that fine-tuned electronic structures and band structures can be modified to initiate DMO properties. Interestingly, in the semiconducting state, the doped Co ions and oxygen vacancies contribute non-negligible magnetic moments; and the magnetic coupling between these moments is mediated by the localized carriers via hig…
Complex oxides with tunable structures have many fascinating properties, though high-quality complex oxide epitaxy with precisely controlled composition is still out of reach. Here we have successfully developed solution-based single crystalline epitaxy for multiferroic (1-x)BiTi(1-y)/2FeyMg(1-y)/2O3-(x)CaTiO3 (BTFM-CTO) solid solution in large area, confirming its ferroelectricity at atomic-scale with a spontaneous polarization of 79~89uC/cm2. Careful compositional tuning leads to a bulk magnetization of ~0.07uB/Fe at room temperature, enabling magnetically induced polarization switching exhi…
We study the equilibrium arrangements of polarization vortices in (PbTiO$_3$)$_n$/(SrTiO$_3$)$_n$ superlattices by means of second-principles simulations. We find that, at low temperatures, polarization vortices organize in a regular arrangement in which clockwise and counter-clockwise vortices alternate positions, leading to a crystal-like structure with well defined handedness. This chiral crystal melts at a critical temperature $T_\mathrm{M}$ into a chiral liquid, where long-range order is lost but handedness is preserved. At even higher temperatures, $T_\mathrm{C}$, a second phase transiti…
Using ab initio thermodynamics we compile a phase diagram for the surface of Fe3O4(001) as a function of temperature and oxygen pressures. A hitherto ignored polar termination with octahedral iron and oxygen forming a wave-like structure along the [110]-direction is identified as the lowest energy configuration over a broad range of oxygen gas-phase conditions. This novel geometry is confirmed in a x-ray diffraction analysis. The stabilization of the Fe3O4(001)-surface goes together with dramatic changes in the electronic and magnetic properties, e.g., a halfmetal-to-metal transition.
We employed first-principles density functional theory calculations guided by group-theoretical analysis and demonstrated the control of insulator-metal-insulator transition, polarization and two sublattice magnetization in (LaFeO$_3$)$_1$/(CaFeO$_3$)$_1$ superlattice via. multi structural mode coupling i.e., 'multimode coupling'. We have discovered a polar A-type charge disproportionation mode, Q$_{ACD}$ (analogous to the A-type antiferromagnetic ordering), and found that it couples with the trilinear coupling, $Q_{Tri}$ mode (common in $Pnma$ perovskite oxides and involves three structural m…
We use hybrid functionals and restricted self-consistent GW, state-of-the-art theoretical approaches for quasiparticle band structures, to study the electronic states of delafossite Cu(Al,In)O$_2$, the first p-type and bipolar transparent conductive oxides. We show that self-consistent GW gives remarkably wider band gaps than all the other approaches used so far. Accounting for polaronic effects in the GW scheme we recover a very nice agreement with experiments. Furthermore, the modifications with respect to the Kohn-Sham bands are strongly k-dependent, which makes questionable the common prac…
Small polarons (SPs) are known to exist in most important transition metal oxides (TMOs); however, the nature of small polaron formation remains enigmatic, and a fundamental understanding of how SPs impact the intrinsic electronic structure and optical properties of these materials is largely lacking. In this work, we employ first-principles calculations to investigate SP formation in Co$_{3}$O$_{4}$, a highly promising material for a wide range of emerging energy applications, and we resolve the conflicting findings that have been reported on the electronic structure of the system. We confirm…
Spin polarized current is the main ingredient of diluted magnetic oxides due to its potential manipulation in spintronic devices. However, most research has focused on ferromagnetic properties rather than polarization of electric current, because direct measurements were difficult and the origin of spin polarized currents has yet to be fully understood. The method to increase the spin polarized current percentage is beyond practical consideration at the present status. To target this problem, we focus on the role of oxygen vacancies and nano grain size on the spin polarized current, which are …
We report on the polarized neutron reflectometry investigation of monolayer of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles assembled by the Langmuir-Schaefer method. After deposition onto a solid substrate the polarized neutron reflectometry measurements in the external magnetic field were carried out. Thickness, density, roughness and in-depth resolved magnetization profile of the resulted layer were obtained from accurate fitting routine.
The occurence of spin-polarization at ZrO$_{2}$, Al$_{2}$O$_{3}$ and MgO surfaces is proved by means of \textit{ab-initio} calculations within the density functional theory. Large spin moments, as high as 1.56 $μ_B$, develop at O-ended polar terminations, transforming the non-magnetic insulator into a half-metal. The magnetic moments mainly reside in the surface oxygen atoms and their origin is related to the existence of $2p$ holes of well-defined spin polarization at the valence band of the ionic oxide. The direct relation between magnetization and local loss of donor charge makes possible t…
We have synthesized and investigated the heterointerfaces of KTaO$_3$ (KTO) and GdScO$_3$ (GSO), which are both polar complex-oxides along the pseudo-cubic [001] direction. Since their layers have the same, conflicting net charges at interfaces, i.e. KO(-1)/ScO$_2$(-1) or TaO$_2$(+1)/GdO(+1), forming the heterointerface of KTO/GSO should be forbidden due to strong Coulomb repulsion, the so-called $\textit{polarity conflict}$. However, we have discovered that atomic reconstruction occurs at the heterointerfaces between KTO thin-films and GSO substrates, which effectively alleviates the polarity…
We study the influence of polarity on the binding and diffusion of single conjugated organic molecules on the inorganic (10-10) zinc oxide surface by means of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations at room temperature and above. In particular, we consider the effects of partial fluorination of the para-sexiphenyl (p-6P) molecule with chemical modifications of one head group (p-6PF2) or both (symmetric) head and tail (p-6PF4). Quantum-mechanical and classical simulations both result in consistent and highly distinct dipole moments and densities of the fluorinated molecules, which interestingly…
Polar discontinuities and structural changes at oxide interfaces can give rise to a large variety of electronic and ionic phenomena. Related effects have been intensively studied in epitaxial systems, including ferroelectric domain walls and interfaces in superlattices. Here, we investigate the relation between polar discontinuities and the local chemistry at grain boundaries in polycrystalline ferroelectric ErMnO3. Using orientation mapping and different scanning probe microscopy techniques, we demonstrate that the polycrystalline material develops charged grain boundaries with enhanced elect…
Ferroic domain walls could play an important role in microelectronics, given their nanometric size and often distinct functional properties. Until now, devices and device concepts were mostly based on mobile domain walls in ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials. A less explored path is to make use of polar domain walls in nonpolar ferroelastic materials. Indeed, while the polar character of ferroelastic domain walls has been demonstrated, polarization control has been elusive. Here, we report evidence for the electrostatic signature of the domain-wall polarization in nonpolar calcium titan…
We report calculations indicating that amorphous RAO$_3$ oxides, with R and A trivalent cations, have approximately the same static dielectric constant as their perovskite crystal phase. The effect is due to the disorder-activated polar response of non-polar crystal modes at low frequency, which compensates a moderate but appreciable reduction of the ionic dynamical charges. The dielectric response was studied via density-functional perturbation theory. Amorphous samples were generated by molecular dynamics melt-and-quench simulations.
We address the electronic structure of quantum wells in polar-nonpolar oxide heterojunction systems focusing on the case of non-polar BaVO$_3$ wells surrounded by polar LaTiO$_3$ barriers. Our discussion is based on a density functional description using the local spin density approximation with local correlation corrections (LSDA+U). We conclude that a variety of quite different two-dimensional electron systems can occur at interfaces between insulating materials depending on band line-ups and on the geometrical arrangement of polarity discontinuities.
The temperature-dependent phase transitions in Ruddlesden-Popper oxides with perovskite bilayers have been under increased scrutiny in recent years due to the so-called hybrid improper ferroelectricity that some chemical compositions exhibit. However, little is currently understood about the hydrostatic pressure dependence of these phase transitions. Herein we present the results of a high-pressure powder synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiment and $ab~initio$ calculations on the bilayered Ruddlesden-Popper phases Ca$_{3}$Mn$_{2}$O$_{7}$ and Ca$_{3}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$. In both compounds we obser…
Topological polar vortices that are the electric analogues of magnetic objects, present great potential in applications of future nanoelectronics due to their nanometer size, anomalous dielectric response, and chirality. To enable the functionalities, it is prerequisite to manipulate the polar states and chirality by using external stimuli. Here, we probe the evolutions of polar state and chirality of polar vortices in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices under electric field by using atomically resolved in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy and phase-field simulations. We find that the adj…
Novel phenomena appear when two different oxide materials are combined together to form an interface. For example, at the interface of LaAlO3/SrTiO3, two dimensional conductive states form to avoid the polar discontinuity and magnetic properties are found at such interface. In this work, we propose a new type of interface between two nonmagnetic and nonpolar oxides that could host a conductive state with magnetic properties, where it is the ferroelectric polarization discontinuity instead of the polar discontinuity that leads to the charge transfer, forming the interfacial conductive or magnet…
First-principles calculations demonstrate the evolution of the band alignment at La0.7A0.3MnO3|La1-xAx|TiO2|SrTiO3(001) heterointerfaces, where A = Ca, Sr, or Ba, as the interfacial A-site composition, La1-Ax, is varied from x = 0.5 to x = 1.0. This variation leads to a linear change of the SrTiO3 valence band offset with respect to the Fermi level of the La0.7A0.3MnO3 metal electrode and hence to a linear change of the Schottky barrier height at this interface. The effect arises due to electrostatic screening of the polar interface which alters the interfacial dipole and hence the electrostat…
Perovskite oxide heteroepitaxy receives much attention because of the possibility to com- bine the diverse functionalities of perovskite oxide building blocks. A general boundary con- dition for the epitaxy is the presence of polar discontinuities at heterointerfaces. These polar discontinuities result in reconstructions, often creating new functionalities at the interface. However, for a significant number of materials these reconstructions are unwanted as they alter the intrinsic materials properties at the interface. Therefore, a strategy to eliminate this reconstruction of the polar discon…
Magnetism of transition metal (TM) oxides is usually described in terms of the Heisenberg model, with orientation-independent interactions between the spins. However, the applicability of such a model is not fully justified for TM oxides because spin polarization of oxygen is usually ignored. In the conventional model based on the Anderson principle, oxygen effects are considered as a property of the TM ion and only TM interactions are relevant. Here, we perform a systematic comparison between two approaches for spin polarization on oxygen in typical TM oxides. To this end, we calculate the ex…
Variety of conducting heterointerfaces have been made between SrTiO3 substrates and thin capping layers of distinctly different oxide materials that can be classified into polar band insulators (e.g. LaAlO3), polar Mott insulators (e.g. LaTiO3), apparently non-polar band insulators (e.g. γ-Al2O3), and amorphous oxides (e.g. amorphous SrTiO3). A fundamental question to ask is if there is a common mechanism that governs interfacial conductivity in all these heterointerfaces. Here, we examined the conductivity of different kinds of heterointerfaces by annealing in oxygen and surface treatment wit…
Low-temperature transport and magnetization measurements for the antiferromagnets SrMnO(3) and CaMnO(3) identify an impurity band of mobile states separated by energy E from electrons bound in Coulombic potentials. Very weak electric fields are sufficient to excite bound electrons to the impurity band, increasing the mobile carrier concentration by more than three orders of magnitude. The data argue against the formation of self-trapped magnetic polarons (MPs) predicted by theory, and rather imply that bound MPs become stable only for kT<<E.
Domain-wall-to-domain interconversion in a polar conducting oxide
University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学）；Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学泽尔尼克先进材料研究所）；Groningen Cognitive Systems and Materials Center (CogniGron), University of Groningen（格罗宁根认知系统与材料中心）；Faculty of Physics, University of Duisburg-Essen（杜伊斯堡-埃森大学物理学院）；Research Center Future Energy Materials and Systems (RC FEMS), Research Alliance Ruhr（鲁尔研究联盟未来能源材料与系统研究中心）；Institut des Molécules et Matériaux du Mans, UMR 6283 CNRS, Le Mans Université（勒芒大学CNRS 6283分子与材料研究所）；The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)（欧洲同步辐射装置）；Theoretical Materials Physics, Q-MAT, University of Liège（列日大学Q-MAT理论物质物理）
In oxide heterostructures, different materials are integrated into a single artificial crystal, resulting in a breaking of inversion-symmetry across the heterointerfaces. A notable example is the interface between polar and non-polar materials, where valence discontinuities lead to otherwise inaccessible charge and spin states. This approach paved the way to the discovery of numerous unconventional properties absent in the bulk constituents. However, control of the geometric structure of the electronic wavefunctions in correlated oxides remains an open challenge. Here, we create heterostructur…
The interface between the polar LaAlO$_3$ and nonpolar SrTiO$_3$ layers has been shown to exhibit various electronic and magnetic phases such as two dimensional electron gas, superconductivity, magnetism and electronic phase separation. These rich phases are expected due to the strong interplay between charge, spin and orbital degree of freedom at the interface between these complex oxides, leading to the electronic reconstruction in this system. However, until now all of these new properties have been studied extensively based on the interfaces which involve a polar LaAlO$_3$ layer. To invest…
Since the discovery of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the oxide interface of LaAlO3/SrTiO3, improving carrier mobility has become an important issue for device applications. In this paper, by using an alternate polar perovskite insulator (La0.3Sr0.7)(Al0.65Ta0.35)O3 (LSAT) for reducing lattice mismatch from 3.0% to 1.0%, the low-temperature carrier mobility has been increased 30 fold to 35,000 cm2V-1s-1. Moreover, two critical thicknesses for the LSAT/SrTiO3 (001) interface are found: one at 5 unit cell for appearance of the 2DEG, the other at 12 unit cell for a peak in the carrier mob…
The polarization and strain response of ferroelectric materials at fields below the macroscopic coercive field is of a paramount importance for the operation of many electronic devices. The response of real ferroelectric and related materials is in general complex and difficult to interpret. The reason for this is that many processes in a ferroelectric material contribute to its properties, often concurrently. Examples include motion of ferroelectric and ferroelastic domains, presence of domains within domains, dynamics of different types of polar nano-entities, interaction of polar nano-entit…
The oxide heterostructure [(YFeO$_3$)$_5$(LaFeO$_3$)$_5$]$_{40}$, which is magnetically ordered and piezoelectric at room temperature, has been constructed from two weak ferromagnetic AFeO$_3$ perovskites with different A cations using RHEED-monitored pulsed laser deposition. The polarisation arises through the removal of inversion centres present within the individual AFeO$_3$ components. This symmetry reduction is a result of combining ordering on the A site, imposed by the periodicity of the grown structure, with appropriate orientations of the octahedral tilting characteristic of the perov…
The surfaces generated by cleaving non-polar, two-dimensional oxides are often considered to be perfect or ideal. However, single particle spectroscopies on Sr2RuO4, an archetypal non-polar two dimensional oxide, show significant cleavage temperature dependence. We demonstrate that this is not a consequence of the intrinsic characteristics of the surface: lattice parameters and symmetries, step heights, atom positions, or density of states. Instead, we find a marked increase in the density of defects at the mesoscopic scale with increased cleave temperature. The potential generality of these d…
In a nanocomposite of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and BiFeO$_3$ (BFO), the remanent ferroelectric polarization is found to follow nonmonotonic magnetic field dependence at room temperature as the applied magnetic field is swept across 0-20 kOe on a pristine sample. The remanent ferroelectric polarization is determined both from direct electrical measurements on an assembly of nanoparticles and powder neutron diffraction patterns recorded under 0-20 kOe field. The nanosized ($\sim$20 nm) particles of BFO are anchored onto the graphene sheets of RGO via Fe-C bonds with concomitant rise in coval…
The discovery of ferroelectric HfO2 in thin films and more recently in bulk is an important breakthrough because of its silicon-compatibility and unexpectedly persistent polarization at low dimensions, but the origin of its ferroelectricity is still under debate. The stabilization of the metastable polar orthorhombic phase was often considered as the cumulative result of various extrinsic factors such as stress, grain boundary, and oxygen vacancies as well as phase transition kinetics during the annealing process. We propose a novel mechanism to stabilize the polar orthorhombic phase over the …
Polar discontinuities occurring at interfaces between two different materials constitute both a challenge and an opportunity in the study and application of a variety of devices. In order to cure the large electric field occurring in such structures, a reconfiguration of the charge landscape sets in at the interface via chemical modifications, adsorbates or charge transfer. In the latter case, one may expect a local electronic doping of one material: one sparkling example is the two-dimensional electron liquid (2DEL) appearing in SrTiO$_3$ once covered by a polar LaAlO$_3$ layer. Here we show …
Soft-X-ray ARPES (SX-ARPES) with its enhanced probing depth and chemical specificity allows access to fundamental electronic structure characteristics - momentum-resolved spectral function, band structure, Fermi surface - of systems difficult and even impossible for the conventional ARPES such as three-dimensional materials, buried interfaces and impurities. After a recap of the spectroscopic abilities of SX-ARPES, we review its applications to oxide interfaces, focusing on the paradigm LaAlO3-SrTiO3 interface. Resonant SX-ARPES at the Ti L-edge accentuates photoemission response of the mobile…
The transfer of electrons between a solid surface and adsorbed atomic or molecular species is fundamental in natural and synthetic processes, being at the heart of most catalytic reactions and many sensors. In special cases, metallic conduction can be induced at the surface of, for example, Si-terminated SiC1, or mixed-terminated ZnO2, in the presence of a hydrogen adlayer. Generally, only the surface atoms are significantly affected by adsorbates. However, remotely changing electronic states far from the adsorbed layer is possible if these states are electrostatically coupled to the surface. …
LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ heterostructure with polar and non-polar constituents has been shown to exhibit interface metallic conductivity due to fractional charge transfer to the interface. The interface reconstruction by electron redistribution along (001) orientation, in which half of an electron is transferred per two dimensional unit cell to the adjacent planes, resulting in a net transfer of half of the charge, to both the interface and top most atomic planes, has been ascribed to a polar discontinuity at the interface in the Polar Catastrophe model. This avoids the divergence of electrosta…
We report on the transport characterization in dark and under light irradiation of three different interfaces: LaAlO3/SrTiO3, LaGaO3/SrTiO3, and the novel NdGaO3/SrTiO3 heterostructure. All of them share a perovskite structure, an insulating nature of the single building blocks, a polar/non- polar character and a critical thickness of four unit cells for the onset of conductivity. The interface structure and charge confinement in NdGaO3/SrTiO3 are probed by atomic-scale- resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy showing that, similarly to LaAlO3/SrTiO3, extra electronic charge confined in a s…
Complex oxide systems have attracted considerable attention because of their fascinating properties, including the magnetic ordering at the conducting interface between two band insulators, such as LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO). However, the manipulation of the spin degree of freedom at the LAO/STO heterointerface has remained elusive. Here, we have fabricated hybrid magnetic tunnel junctions consisting of Co and LAO/STO ferromagnets with the insertion of a Ti layer in between, which clearly exhibit magnetic switching and the tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect below 10 K. The magnitude …
Magnetic complex-oxide heterostructures are of keen interest because a wealth of phenomena at the interface of dissimilar materials can give rise to fundamentally new physics and potentially valuable functionalities. Altered magnetization, novel magnetic coupling and emergent interfacial magnetism at the epitaxial layered-oxide interfaces are under intensive investigation, which shapes our understanding on how to utilize those materials, particularly for spintronics. Neutron and x-ray based techniques have played a decisive role in characterizing interfacial magnetic structures and clarifying …
