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Ferromagnetic domain nucleation and growth in colossal magnetoresistive manganite

Nature Nanotechnology 5, 37–41 (2010) | Download Citation

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Abstract

Colossal magnetoresistance is a dramatic decrease in resistivity caused by applied magnetic fields1,2,3,4, and has been the focus of much research because of its potential for magnetic data storage using materials such as manganites. Although extensive microscopy and theoretical studies5,6,7,8,9,10,11 have shown that colossal magnetoresistance involves competing insulating and ferromagnetic conductive phases, the mechanism underlying the effect remains unclear. Here, by directly observing magnetic domain walls and flux distributions using cryogenic Lorentz microscopy and electron holography12,13,14, we demonstrate that an applied magnetic field assists nucleation and growth of an ordered ferromagnetic phase. These results provide new insights into the evolution dynamics of complex domain structures at the nanoscale, and help to explain anomalous phase separation phenomena that are relevant for applications3,15,16,17,18,19. Our approach can also be used to determine magnetic parameters of nanoscale regions, such as magnetocrystalline anisotropy and exchange stiffness, without bulk magnetization results or neutron scattering data.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the research fund of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. The authors are indebted to K. Harada for preparing the video clips.

Author information

    • J. J. Kim

    Present address: Samsung Electronics, Hwasung City 445-701, Korea

Affiliations

  1. Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Kunigami, Okinawa 904-0411, Japan

    • Y. Murakami
    • , H. Kasai
    • , J. J. Kim
    • , S. Mamishin
    • , D. Shindo
    •  & A. Tonomura

  2. IMRAM, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

    • Y. Murakami
    •  & D. Shindo

  3. Advanced Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Hatoyama, Saitama 350-0395, Japan

    • H. Kasai
    •  & A. Tonomura

  4. Hitachi High-Technologies, Hitachinaka, Ibaraki 312-8504, Japan

    • S. Mamishin

  5. Department of Materials Science, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai 599-8531, Japan

    • S. Mori

  6. Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

    • A. Tonomura

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Contributions

Y.M., H.K., D.S. and A.T. conceived and designed the experiments. Y.M., H.K., J.J.K., S. Mamishin and S. Mori performed the experiments. S. Mori contributed materials and Y.M. analysed the data. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Y. Murakami.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.342

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