MAGNETISM. Imaging and control of ferromagnetism in LaMnO₃/SrTiO₃ heterostructures.
Oxide heterostructures often exhibit unusual physical properties that are absent in the constituent bulk materials. Here, we report an atomically sharp transition to a ferromagnetic phase when polar antiferromagnetic LaMnO3 (001) films are grown on SrTiO3 substrates. For a thickness of six unit cells or more, the LaMnO3 film abruptly becomes ferromagnetic over its entire area, which is visualized by scanning superconducting quantum interference device microscopy. The transition is explained in terms of electronic reconstruction originating from the polar nature of the LaMnO3 (001) films. Our results demonstrate that functionalities can be engineered in oxide films that are only a few atomic layers thick.
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands. wang.xiao@utwente.nl venky@nus.edu.sg.
X Renshaw
XR
Wang
NUSNNI-Nanocore, National University of Singapore, Singapore. NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
C J
CJ
Li
NUSNNI-Nanocore, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
W M
WM
Lü
Department of Physics and Astronomy and Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA.
T R
TR
Paudel
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.
D P
DP
Leusink
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.
M
M
Hoek
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.
N
N
Poccia
Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
A
A
Vailionis
NUSNNI-Nanocore, National University of Singapore, Singapore. NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore. wang.xiao@utwente.nl venky@nus.edu.sg.
T
T
Venkatesan
NUSNNI-Nanocore, National University of Singapore, Singapore. School of Physics and Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
J M D
JM
Coey
Department of Physics and Astronomy and Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA.
E Y
EY
Tsymbal
NUSNNI-Nanocore, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Ariando
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.
H
H
Hilgenkamp