No Arabic abstract
We report a spectral ellipsometry study of multilayers composed of superconducting YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+delta}$ (YBCO) and ferromagnetic La$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ in the spectral range of 0.7 - 6.5 eV. With increasing YBCO sublayer thickness, the optical spectral weight is enhanced at photon energies of 1.5 - 3.5 eV. The spectral weight enhancement is proportional to the number of interfaces of each multilayer sample, indicating its association with the interfacial electronic structure. Based on calculations in the framework of a multilayer model, we find that the shape of the interface-induced spectral weight is consistent with transfer of hole-carriers from YBCO to LCMO. Our results imply that the holes that are transferred across the interfaces accumulate in the LCMO layers, rather than being pinned by interfacial defects or annihilated by electron donors such as oxygen vacancies. Optical spectroscopy can thus serve as a non-destructive probe of charge transfer across buried interfaces in metal-oxide heterostructures.
Heteroepitaxially grown bilayers of ferromagnetic La$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ (LCMO) on top of superconducting YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$ (YBCO) thin films were investigated by focusing on electric transport properties as well as on magnetism and orbital occupation at the interface. Transport measurements on YBCO single layers and on YBCO/LCMO bilayers, with different YBCO thickness $d_Y$ and constant LCMO thickness $d_L=50$,nm, show a significant reduction of the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ only for $d_Y<10$,nm,with only a slightly stronger $T_c$ suppression in the bilayers, as compared to the single layers. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements confirm recently published data of an induced magnetic moment on the interfacial Cu by the ferromagnetically ordered Mn ions, with antiparallel alignment between Cu and Mn moments. However, we observe a significantely larger Cu moment than previously reported, indicating stronger coupling between Cu and Mn at the interface. This in turn could result in an interface with lower transparency, and hence smaller spin diffusion length, that would explain our electric transport data, i.e.smaller $T_c$ suppression. Moreover, linear dichroism measurements did not show any evidence for orbital reconstruction at the interface, indicating that a large change in orbital occupancies through hybridization is not necessary to induce a measurable ferromagnetic moment on the Cu atoms.
Studies to date on ferromagnet/d-wave superconductor heterostructures focus mainly on the effects at or near the interfaces while the response of bulk properties to heterostructuring is overlooked. Here we use resonant soft x-ray scattering spectroscopy to reveal a novel c-axis ferromagnetic coupling between the in-plane Cu spins in YBa$_2$ Cu$_3$ O$_{7-x}$ (YBCO) superconductor when it is grown on top of ferromagnetic La$_{0.7}$ Ca$_{0.3}$ MnO$_3$ (LCMO) manganite layer. This coupling, present in both normal and superconducting states of YBCO, is sensitive to the interfacial termination such that it is only observed in bilayers with MnO_2but not with La$_{0.7}$ Ca$_{0.3}$ interfacial termination. Such contrasting behaviors, we propose, are due to distinct energetic of CuO chain and CuO$_2$ plane at the La$_{0.7}$ Ca$_{0.3}$ and MnO$_2$ terminated interfaces respectively, therefore influencing the transfer of spin-polarized electrons from manganite to cuprate differently. Our findings suggest that the superconducting/ferromagnetic bilayers with proper interfacial engineering can be good candidates for searching the theorized Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in cuprates and studying the competing quantum orders in highly correlated electron systems.
Superlattices composed of ferromagnetics, namely La$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ (LCMO), and ferroelectrics, namely, BaTiO$_3$(BTO) were grown on SrTiO$_3$ at 720$^o$C by pulsed laser deposition process. While the out-of-plane lattice parameters of the superlattices, as extracted from the X-ray diffraction studies, were found to be dependent on the BTO layer thickness, the in-plane lattice parameter is almost constant. The evolution of the strains, their nature, and their distribution in the samples, were examined by the conventional sin$^2psi $ method. The effects of structural variation on the physical properties, as well as the possible role of the strain on inducing the multiferroism in the superlattices, have also been discussed.
Charge transfer induced interfacial ferromagnetism and its impact on the exchange bias effect in La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$/NdNiO$_3$ correlated oxide heterostructures were investigated by soft x-ray absorption and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectra in a temperature range from 10 to 300 K. Besides the antiferromagnetic Ni$_3^+$ cations which are naturally part of the NdNiO$_3$ layer, Ni$_2^+$ ions are formed at the interface due to a charge transfer mechanism involving the Mn element of the adjacent layer. They exhibit a ferromagnetic behavior due to the exchange coupling to the Mn$_4^+$ ions in the La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ layer. This can be seen as detrimental to the strength of the unidirectional anisotropy since a significant part of the interface does not contribute to the pinning of the ferromagnetic layer. By analyzing the line shape changes of the x-ray absorption at the Ni L$_{2,3}$ edges, the metal-insulator transition of the NdNiO$_3$ layer is resolved in an element specific manner. This phase transition is initiated at about 120 K, way above the paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic transition of NdNiO$_3$ layer which measured to be 50 K. Exchange bias and enhanced coercive fields were observed after field cooling the sample through the Neel temperature of the NdNiO$_3$ layer. Different from La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$/LaNiO$_3$, the exchange bias observed in La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$/NdNiO$_3$ is due to the antiferromagnetism of NdNiO$_3$ and the frustration at the interface. These results suggest that reducing the interfacial orbital hybridization may be used as a tunable parameter for the strength of the exchange bias effect in all-oxide heterostructures which exhibit a charge transfer mechanism.
Using polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR), we observe an induced magnetization of 75$pm$ 25 kA/m at 10 K in a La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$MnO$_3$ (LSMO)/BiFeO$_3$ superlattice extending from the interface through several atomic layers of the BiFeO$_3$ (BFO). The induced magnetization in BFO is explained by density functional theory, where the size of bandgap of BFO plays an important role. Considering a classical exchange field between the LSMO and BFO layers, we further show that magnetization is expected to extend throughout the BFO, which provides a theoretical explanation for the results of the neutron scattering experiment.