Ferrimagnetism and spontaneous ordering of transition-metals in La2CrFeO6 double-perovskite films


Abstract in English

We report on atomic ordering of B-site transition-metals and magnetic properties of epitaxial La2CrFeO6 double-perovskite films grown by pulsed-laser deposition under various conditions. The highest ordered sample exhibited a fraction of antisite-disorder of only 0.05 and a saturation magnetization of ~2mu_{B} per formula unit at 5 K. The result is consistent with the antiferromagnetic ordering of local spin moment (3d^{3}_{downarrow}3d^{5}_{uparrow}; S = -3/2+5/2 = 1). Therefore, the magnetic ground state of La2CrFeO6 double-perovskite that has been long debate is unambiguously revealed to be ferrimagnetic. Our results present a wide opportunity to explore novel magnetic properties of binary transition-metal perovskites upon epitaxial stabilization of the ordered phase.

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