Letter abstract
Nature Materials 8, 315 - 319 (2009)
Published online: 15 February 2009 | doi:10.1038/nmat2383
Subject Categories: Magnetic materials | Superconductors
Giant superconductivity-induced modulation of the ferromagnetic magnetization in a cuprate–manganite superlattice
J. Hoppler1,2, J. Stahn2, Ch. Niedermayer2, V. K. Malik1, H. Bouyanfif1,5, A. J. Drew1,5, M. Rössle1, A. Buzdin3, G. Cristiani4, H.-U. Habermeier4, B. Keimer4 & C. Bernhard1
Artificial multilayers offer unique opportunities for combining materials with antagonistic orders such as superconductivity and ferromagnetism and thus to realize novel quantum states1, 2. In particular, oxide multilayers enable the utilization of the high superconducting transition temperature of the cuprates and the versatile magnetic properties of the colossal-magnetoresistance manganites 3, 4, 5, 6. However, apart from exploratory work7, 8, 9, 10, the in-depth investigation of their unusual properties has only just begun11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Here we present neutron reflectometry measurements of a [Y0.6Pr0.4Ba2Cu3O7 (10 nm)/La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 (10 nm)]10 superlattice, which reveal a surprisingly large superconductivity-induced modulation of the vertical ferromagnetic magnetization profile. Most surprisingly, this modulation seems to involve the density rather than the orientation of the magnetization and is highly susceptible to the strain, which is transmitted from the SrTiO3 substrate. We outline a possible explanation of this unusual superconductivity-induced phenomenon in terms of a phase separation between ferromagnetic and non-ferromagnetic nanodomains in the La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 layers.
- Physics Department and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials (FriMat), Fribourg University, Chemin du Musée 3, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
- Laboratory for Neutron Scattering, ETH Zurich & Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
- Condensed Matter Theory Group, CPMOH, UMR 5798, Université Bordeaux I, F-33405 Talence Cedex, France
- Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 1, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
- Present addresses: Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Université de Picadie Jules Verne, 80000 Amiens, France (H.B.); Queen Mary University of London, Department of Physics, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK (A.J.D.)
Correspondence to: J. Stahn2 e-mail: Jochen.stahn@psi.ch
Correspondence to: C. Bernhard1 e-mail: christian.bernhard@unifr.ch
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