No Arabic abstract
Since oxide materials like Sr$_2$FeMoO$_6$ are usually applied as thin films, we studied the effect of biaxial strain, resulting from the substrate, on the electronic and magnetic properties and, in particular, on the formation energy of point defects. From our first-principles calculations, we determined that the probability of forming point defects - like vacancies or substitutions - in Sr$_2$FeMoO$_6$ could be adjusted by choosing a proper substrate. For example, the amount of anti-site disorder can be reduced with compressive strain in order to obtain purer Sr$_2$FeMoO$_6$ as needed for spintronic applications, while the formation of oxygen vacancies is more likely for tensile strain, which improves the functionality of Sr$_2$FeMoO$_6$ as a basis material of solid oxide fuel cells. In addition, we were also be able to include the oxygen partial pressure in our study by using its thermodynamic connection with the chemical potential. Strontium vacancies become for example more likely than oxygen vacancies at a pressure of 1$,$bar. Hence, this degree of freedom might offer in general another potential method for defect engineering in oxides besides, e.g., experimental growth conditions like temperature or gas pressure.
Oxygen vacancies can be of utmost importance for improving or deteriorating physical properties of oxide materials. Here, we studied from first-principles the electronic and magnetic properties of oxygen vacancies in the double perovskite Sr$_2$FeMoO$_6$ (SFMO). We show that oxygen vacancies can increase the Curie temperature in SFMO, although the total magnetic moment is reduced at the same time. We found also that the experimentally observed valence change of the Fe ions from $3+$ to $2+$ in the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements is better explained by oxygen vacancies than by the assumed mixed valence state. The agreement of the calculated x-ray absorption spectra and XMCD results with experimental data is considerably improved by inclusion of oxygen vacancies.
The phenomenon of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) provides fundamental information on the physics of magnetic materials and lies at the heart of a variety of signal processing microwave devices. Here we demonstrate theoretically that substrate-induced lattice strains may change the FMR frequency of an epitaxial ferromagnetic film dramatically, leading to ultralow and ultrahigh resonance frequencies at room temperature. Remarkably, the FMR frequency varies with the epitaxial strain nonmonotonically, reaching minimum at a critical strain corresponding to the strain-induced spin reorientation transition. Furthermore, by coupling the ferromagnetic film to a ferroelectric substrate, it becomes possible to achieve an efficient voltage control of FMR parameters. In contrast to previous studies, we found that the tunability of FMR frequency varies with the applied electric field and strongly increases at critical field intensity. The revealed features open up wide opportunities for the development of advanced tunable magnetoelectric devices based on strained nanomagnets.
We have prepared crystallographically ordered and disorder specimens of the double perovskite, Sr$_2$FeMoO$_6$ and investigated their magnetoresistance behaviour. The extent of ordering between the Fe and Mo sites in the two samples is determined by Rietveld analysis of powder x-ray diffraction patterns and reconfirmed by M{o}ssbauer studies. While the ordered sample exhibits the sharp low-field response, followed by moderate changes in the magnetoresistance at higher fields, the disordered sample is characterised by the absence of the spectacular low-field response. We argue that the low field response depends crucially on the half-metallic ferromagnetism, while the high-field response follows from the overall magnetic nature of the sample, even in absence of the half-metallic state.
We have investigated the magnetic and magnetotransport properties of Ba$_2$FeMoO$_6$ thin films produced by pulsed laser deposition from optimized bulk material. The films are comprised of grains of crystalline Ba$_2$FeMoO$_6$ with a disordered grain boundary region that lowers the net saturation magnetization of the film and prevents full magnetic alignment below a Curie temperature $T_C$$sim$305 K. Magnetotransport measurements point to the Ba$_2$FeMoO$_6$ grains retaining the high spin polarization of a half-metal up to $T_C$, while the grain boundaries greatly reduce the spin polarization of the intergrain electrical current due to spin-flip scattering. Our results show that a strong spin polarization of the electronic charge carriers is present even in Ba$_2$FeMoO$_6$ films that do not show the ideal bulk magnetic character.
We propose to tailor exchange interactions in magnetic monolayer films by tuning the adjacent non-magnetic substrate. As an example, we demonstrate a ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic phase transition for one monolayer Fe on a Ta(x)W(1-x)(001) surface as a function of the Ta concentration. At the critical Ta concentration, the nearest-neighbor exchange interaction is small and the magnetic phase space is dramatically broadened. Complex magnetic order such as spin-spirals, multiple-Q, or even disordered local moment states can occur, offering the possibility to store information in terms of ferromagnetic dots in an otherwise zero-magnetization state matrix.