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Controlled lateral anisotropy in correlated manganite heterostructures by interface-engineered oxygen octahedral coupling

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 425–431 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Controlled in-plane rotation of the magnetic easy axis in manganite heterostructures by tailoring the interface oxygen network could allow the development of correlated oxide-based magnetic tunnelling junctions with non-collinear magnetization, with possible practical applications as miniaturized high-switching-speed magnetic random access memory (MRAM) devices. Here, we demonstrate how to manipulate magnetic and electronic anisotropic properties in manganite heterostructures by engineering the oxygen network on the unit-cell level. The strong oxygen octahedral coupling is found to transfer the octahedral rotation, present in the NdGaO3 (NGO) substrate, to the La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO) film in the interface region. This causes an unexpected realignment of the magnetic easy axis along the short axis of the LSMO unit cell as well as the presence of a giant anisotropic transport in these ultrathin LSMO films. As a result we possess control of the lateral magnetic and electronic anisotropies by atomic-scale design of the oxygen octahedral rotation.

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Figure 1: Oxygen octahedral coupling at interfaces in manganite heterostructures.
Figure 2: Magnetic anisotropy in manganite heterostructures.
Figure 3: Thickness dependence of the magnetic anisotropy in manganite heterostructures.
Figure 4: Thickness dependence of the transport anisotropy in manganite heterostructures.
Figure 5: Structural mechanism of directional switching of magnetic anisotropy.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge E. Houwman for stimulating discussions. M.H., G.K. and G.R. acknowledge funding from the DESCO programme of the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) with financial support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). This work was funded by the European Union Council under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) grant no. NMP3-LA-2010-246102 IFOX. J.V. and S.V.A. acknowledge funding from FWO projects G.0044.13N and G. 0368.15N. The Qu-Ant-EM microscope was partly funded by the Hercules fund from the Flemish Government. N.G. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), ERC Starting Grant 278510 VORTEX. N.G., S.V.A., J.V. and G.V.T. acknowledge financial support from the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme under a contract for an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative (Reference No. 312483-ESTEEM2). The Canadian work was supported by NSERC and the Max Planck-UBC Centre for Quantum Materials. Some experiments for this work were performed at the Canadian Light Source, which is funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, NSERC, the National Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Government of Saskatchewan, Western Economic Diversification Canada, and the University of Saskatchewan. Z.Z. acknowledges funding from the SFB ViCoM (Austrian Science Fund project ID F4103-N13) and calculations done on the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

    Z. Liao, M. Huijben, G. Koster & G. Rijnders

  2. Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology, A-1040 Vienna, Austria

    Z. Zhong & K. Held

  3. Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT), University of Antwerp, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium

    N. Gauquelin, S. Van Aert, J. Verbeeck & G. Van Tendeloo

  4. Quantum Matter Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 2355 East Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada

    S. Macke, R. J. Green & G. A. Sawatzky

  5. Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstraße 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany

    S. Macke

  6. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Nöthnitzerstraße 40, 01187 Dresden, Germany

    R. J. Green

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  1. Z. Liao
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Contributions

Z.L. conceived the design and performed film growth and magnetic/transport measurements. Z.L., M.H., G.K., G.R. and Z.Z. performed data analysis and interpretation. N.G., S.V.A., J.V. and G.V.T. performed STEM and EDX measurements and analysis. S.M., G.K., R.J.G. and G.A.S. performed RXR measurements and analysis. Z.Z. and K.H. performed DFT calculations. All authors extensively discussed the results and were involved in writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to M. Huijben.

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Liao, Z., Huijben, M., Zhong, Z. et al. Controlled lateral anisotropy in correlated manganite heterostructures by interface-engineered oxygen octahedral coupling. Nature Mater 15, 425–431 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4579

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