No Arabic abstract
5d iridates have shown vast emergent phenomena due to a strong interplay among its lattice, charge and spin degrees of freedom, because of which the potential in spintronic application of the thin-film form is highly leveraged. Here we have epitaxially stabilized perovskite SrIr$_{0.8}$Sn$_{0.2}$O$_3$ on [001] SrTiO$_3$ substrates through pulsed laser deposition and systematically characterized the structural, electronic and magnetic properties. Physical properties measurements unravel an insulating ground state with a weak ferromagnetism in the compressively strained epitaxial film. The octahedral rotation pattern is identified by synchrotron x-ray diffraction, resolving a mix of $a^+b^-c^-$ and $a^-b^+c^-$ domains. X-ray magnetic resonant scattering directly demonstrates a G-type antiferromagnetic structure of the magnetic order and the spin canting nature of the weak ferromagnetism.
Magnetic materials with kagome crystal structure exhibit rich physics such as frustrated magnetism, skyrmion formation, topological flat bands, and Dirac/Weyl points. Until recently, most studies on kagome magnets have been performed on bulk crystals or polycrystalline films. Here we report the synthesis of high-quality epitaxial films of topological kagome magnet Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ by atomic layer molecular beam epitaxy. Structural and magnetic characterization of Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ on epitaxial Pt(111) identifies highly ordered films with c-plane orientation and an in-plane magnetic easy axis. Studies of the local magnetic structure by anomalous Nernst effect imaging reveals in-plane oriented micrometer size domains. The realization of high-quality films by atomic layer molecular beam epitaxy opens the door to explore the rich physics of this system and investigate novel spintronic phenomena by interfacing Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ with other materials.
The epitaxial stabilization of a single layer or superlattice structures composed of complex oxide materials on polar (111) surfaces is severely burdened by reconstructions at the interface, that commonly arise to neutralize the polarity. We report on the synthesis of high quality LaNiO$_3$/mLaAlO$_3$ pseudo cubic (111) superlattices on polar (111)-oriented LaAlO$_3$, the proposed complex oxide candidate for a topological insulating behavior. Comprehensive X-Ray diffraction measurements, RHEED, and element specific resonant X-ray absorption spectroscopy affirm their high structural and chemical quality. The study offers an opportunity to fabricate interesting interface and topology controlled (111) oriented superlattices based on ortho-nickelates.
The many surface reconstructions of (110)-oriented lanthanum--strontium manganite (La$_{0.8}$Sr$_{0.2}$MnO$_3$, LSMO) were followed as a function of the oxygen chemical potential ($mu_text{O}$) and the surface cation composition. Decreasing $mu_text{O}$ causes Mn to migrate across the surface, enforcing phase separation into A-site-rich areas and a variety of composition-related, structurally diverse B-site-rich reconstructions. The composition of these phase-separated structures was quantified with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and these results were used to build a 2D phase diagram of the LSMO(110) equilibrium surface structures.
In all archetypical reported (001)-oriented perovskite heterostructures, it has been deduced that the preferential occupation of two-dimensional electron gases is in-plane $d_textrm{xy}$ state. In sharp contrast to this, the investigated electronic structure of a spinel-perovskite heterostructure $gamma$-Al$_2$O$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ by resonant soft X-ray linear dichroism, demonstrates that the preferential occupation is out-of-plane $d_textrm{xz}$/$d_textrm{yz}$ states for interfacial electrons. Moreover, the impact of strain further corroborates that this anomalous orbital structure can be linked to the altered crystal field at the interface and symmetry breaking of the interfacial structural units. Our findings provide another interesting route to engineer emergent quantum states with deterministic orbital symmetry.
Magnetic Tunnel Junctions whose basic element consists of two ferromagnetic electrodes separated by an insulating non-magnetic barrier have become intensely studied and used in non-volatile spintronic devices. Since ballistic tunnel of spin-polarized electrons sensitively depends on the chemical composition and the atomic geometry of the lead/barrier interfaces their proper design is a key issue for achieving the required functionality of the devices such as e.g. a high tunnel magneto resistance. An important leap in the development of novel spintronic devices is to replace the insulating barrier by a ferroelectric which adds new additional functionality induced by the polarization direction in the barrier giving rise to the tunnel electro resistance (TER). The multiferroic tunnel junction Co/PbZr$_{0.2}$Ti$_{0.8}$O$_{3}$/La$_{2/3}$Sr$_{1/3}$MnO$_3$ (Co/PZT/LSMO) represents an archetype system for which - despite intense studies - no consensus exists for the interface geometry and their effect on transport properties. Here we provide the first analysis of the Co/PZT interface at the atomic scale using complementary techniques, namely x-ray diffraction and extended x-ray absorption fine structure in combination with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and ab-initio calculations. The Co/PZT interface consists of one perovskite-type cobalt oxide unit cell [CoO$_{2}$/CoO/Ti(Zr)O$_{2}$] on which a locally ordered cobalt film grows. Magnetic moments (m) of cobalt lie in the range between m=2.3 and m=2.7$mu_{B}$, while for the interfacial titanium atoms they are small (m=+0.005 $mu_{B}$) and parallel to cobalt which is attributed to the presence of the cobalt-oxide interface layers. These insights into the atomistic relation between interface and magnetic properties is expected to pave the way for future high TER devices.