Antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling of (111)-oriented La_(0.67)Sr_(0.33)MnO_3/SrRuO_3 superlattices

We report a strong antiferromagnetic(AFM) interlayer coupling in ferromagnetic La_(0.67)Sr_(0.33)MnO_3/SrRuO_3(LSMO/SRO) superlattices grown on(111)-oriented SrTiO_3 substrate. Unlike the(001) superlattices for which the spin alignment between LSMO and SRO is antiparallel in the in-plane direction and parallel in the out-of-plane direction, the antiparallel alignment is observed along both the in-plane and out-of-plane directions in the present sample. The low temperature hysteresis loop demonstrates two-step magnetic processes, indicating the coexistence of magnetically soft and hard components. Moreover, an inverted hysteresis loop was observed. Exchange bias tuned by the temperature and cooling field was also investigated, and positive as well as negative exchange bias was observed at the same temperature with the variation of the cooling field. A very large exchange field(H_(EB)) was observed and both magnitude and sign of the H_(EB)depend on the cooling field, which can be attributed to an interplay of Zeeman energy and AFM coupling energy at the interfaces. The present work shows the great potential of tuning a spin texture through interfacial engineering for the complex oxides whose spin state is jointly determined by strongly competing mechanisms.

Electric gating of the multichannel conduction in LaAlO_(3)/SrTiO_(3) superlattices

The electric gating on the transport properties of two-dimensional electron gas(2DEG) at the interface of LaAlO_(3)/SrTiO_(3)(LAO/STO) heterostructure has attracted great research interest due to its potential application in fieldeffect devices. Most of previous works of gate effect were focused on the LAO/STO heterostructure containing only one conductive interface. Here, we systematically investigated the gate effect on high-quality LAO/STO superlattices(SLs)fabricated on the TiO_(2)-terminated(001) STO substrates. In addition to the good metallicity of all SLs, we found that there are two types of charge carriers, the majority carriers and the minority carriers, coexisting in the SLs. The sheet resistance of the SLs with a fixed thickness of the LAO layer increases monotonically as the thickness of the STO layer increases. This is derived from the dependence of the minority carrier density on the thickness of STO. Unlike the LAO/STO heterostructure in which minority and majority carriers are simultaneously modulated by the gate effect, the minority carriers in the SLs can be tuned more significantly by the electric gating while the density of majority carriers is almost invariable. Thus, we consider that the minority carriers may mainly exist in the first interface near the STO substrate that is more sensitive to the back-gate voltage, and the majority carriers exist in the post-deposited STO layers. The SL structure provides the space separation for the multichannel conduction in the 2 DEG, which opens an avenue for the design of field-effect devices based on LAO/STO heterostructure.

Tuning magnetic anisotropy by interfacial engineering in La2/3Sr1/3Co1-xMnxO2.5+δ/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/La2/3Sr1/3Co1-xMnxO2.5+δ trilayers

Grouping different oxide materials with coupled charge, spin, and orbital degrees of freedom together to form heterostructures provides a rich playground to explore the emergent interfacial phenomena. The perovskite/brownmillerite heterostructure is particularly interesting since symmetry mismatch may produce considerable interface reconstruction and unexpected physical effects. Here, we systemically study the magnetic anisotropy of tensely strained La2/3Sr1/3Co1-xMnxO2.5+δ/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/La2/3Sr1/3Co1-xMnxO2.5+δ trilayers with interface structures changing from perovskite/brownmillerite type to perovskite/perovskite type. Without Mn doping, the initial La2/3Sr1/3CoO2.5+δ/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/La2/3Sr1/3CoO2.5+δ trilayer with perovskite/brownmillerite interface type exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and the maximal anisotropy constant is 3.385×106 erg/cm3, which is more than one orders of magnitude larger than that of same strained LSMO film. By increasing the Mn doping concentration, the anisotropy constant displays monotonic reduction and even changes from perpendicular magnetic anisotropy to in-plane magnetic anisotropy, which is possible because of the reduced CoO4 tetrahedra concentration in the La2/3Sr1/3Co1-xMnxO2.5+δ layers near the interface. Based on the analysis of the x-ray linear dichroism, the orbital reconstruction of Mn ions occurs at the interface of the trilayers and thus results in the controllable magnetic anisotropy.