D. A. Arena

Interface ferromagnetism and orbital reconstruction in BiFeO3-La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 heterostructures

We report the formation of a novel ferromagnetic state in the antiferromagnet BiFeO3 at the interface with ferromagnet La(0.7)Sr(0.3)MnO3. Using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism at Mn and Fe L(2,3) edges, we discovered that the development of this ferromagnetic spin structure is strongly associated with the onset of a significant exchange bias. Our results demonstrate that the magnetic state is directly related to an electronic orbital reconstruction at the interface, which is supported by the linearly polarized x-ray absorption measurement at the oxygen K edge.

Oxygen-defect-induced magnetism to 880 K in semiconducting anatase TiO2−δ films

We demonstrate a semiconducting material, TiO2??, with ferromagnetism up to 880?K, without the introduction of magnetic ions. The magnetism in these films stems from the controlled introduction of anion defects from both the film?substrate interface as well as processing under an oxygen-deficient atmosphere. The room-temperature carriers are n-type with n~3 ? 1017?cm?3. The density of spins is ~1021?cm?3. Magnetism scales with conductivity, suggesting that a double exchange interaction is active. This represents a new approach in the design and refinement of magnetic semiconductor materials for spintronics device applications.

Interface-induced phenomena in magnetism

This article reviews static and dynamic interfacial effects in magnetism, focusing on interfacially-driven magnetic effects and phenomena associated with spin-orbit coupling and intrinsic symmetry breaking at interfaces. It provides a historical background and literature survey, but focuses on recent progress, identifying the most exciting new scientific results and pointing to promising future research directions. It starts with an introduction and overview of how basic magnetic properties are affected by interfaces, then turns to a discussion of charge and spin transport through and near interfaces and how these can be used to control the properties of the magnetic layer. Important concepts include spin accumulation, spin currents, spin transfer torque, and spin pumping. An overview is provided to the current state of knowledge and existing review literature on interfacial effects such as exchange bias, exchange spring magnets, spin Hall effect, oxide heterostructures, and topological insulators. The article highlights recent discoveries of interface-induced magnetism and non-collinear spin textures, non-linear dynamics including spin torque transfer and magnetization reversal induced by interfaces, and interfacial effects in ultrafast magnetization processes.

Beating the Stoner criterion using molecular interfaces.

Only three elements are ferromagnetic at room temperature: the transition metals iron, cobalt and nickel. The Stoner criterion explains why iron is ferromagnetic but manganese, for example, is not, even though both elements have an unfilled 3d shell and are adjacent in the periodic table: according to this criterion, the product of the density of states and the exchange integral must be greater than unity for spontaneous spin ordering to emerge. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to alter the electronic states of non-ferromagnetic materials, such as diamagnetic copper and paramagnetic manganese, to overcome the Stoner criterion and make them ferromagnetic at room temperature. This effect is achieved via interfaces between metallic thin films and C60 molecular layers. The emergent ferromagnetic state exists over several layers of the metal before being quenched at large sample thicknesses by the material’s bulk properties. Although the induced magnetization is easily measurable by magnetometry, low-energy muon spin spectroscopy provides insight into its distribution by studying the depolarization process of low-energy muons implanted in the sample. This technique indicates localized spin-ordered states at, and close to, the metal–molecule interface. Density functional theory simulations suggest a mechanism based on magnetic hardening of the metal atoms, owing to electron transfer. This mechanism might allow for the exploitation of molecular coupling to design magnetic metamaterials using abundant, non-toxic components such as organic semiconductors. Charge transfer at molecular interfaces may thus be used to control spin polarization or magnetization, with consequences for the design of devices for electronic, power or computing applications (see, for example, refs 6 and 7).

Direct Observation of Electrostatically Driven Band Gap Renormalization in a Degenerate Perovskite Transparent Conducting Oxide

We have directly measured the band gap renormalization associated with the Moss-Burstein shift in the perovskite transparent conducting oxide (TCO), La-doped BaSnO_{3}, using hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We determine that the band gap renormalization is almost entirely associated with the evolution of the conduction band. Our experimental results are supported by hybrid density functional theory supercell calculations. We determine that unlike conventional TCOs where interactions with the dopant orbitals are important, the band gap renormalization in La-BaSnO_{3} is driven purely by electrostatic interactions.

Ferromagnetism in Fe-implanted a-plane ZnO films

Fe ions of dose 5×1016cm−2 were implanted at 200keV into a-plane ZnO epitaxial films. The epitaxial quality of the postannealed samples was verified by x-ray diffraction ω-rocking curves and φ scans, whereas x-ray absorption spectroscopy identified the presence of both Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions, as well as changes in their relative concentration during postannealing. Superconducting quantum interference device measurements show that the as-implanted and postannealed films are ferromagnetic at room temperature. The saturation magnetization reduces during annealing possibly due to the decrease in the number of oxygen vacancies.

Precessional dynamics of elemental moments in a ferromagnetic alloy

We demonstrate an element-specific measurement of magnetization precession in a metallic ferromagnetic alloy, separating Ni and Fe moment motion in Ni81Fe19. Pump-probe X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), synchronized with short magnetic field pulses, is used to measure free magnetization oscillations up to 2.6 GHz with elemental specificity and a rotational resolution of < 2 deg. Magnetic moments residing on Ni sites and Fe sites in a Ni81Fe19(50nm) thin film are found to precess together at all frequencies, coupled in phase within instrumental resolution of 90 ps.

Cation-disorder-enhanced magnetization in pulsed-laser-deposited CuFe2O4 films

Copper ferrite films have been deposited on (100) MgO substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. The oxygen pressure used in deposition was varied from 1to120mTorr with the substrate temperature fixed at 700°C. Magnetization values are measured to increase with oxygen pressure, reaching a maximum value of 2480G, which is a 42% increase over the bulk equilibrium value. Extended x-ray absorption spectroscopy shows that the Cu cation inversion δ [defined as (Cu1−δFeδ)tet[CuδFe2−δ]octO4] decreases monotonically from 0.72 to 0.55 with increasing saturation magnetization.

Weakly coupled motion of individual layers in ferromagnetic resonance

We demonstrate a layer- and time-resolved measurement of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in a Ni{sub 81}Fe{sub 19}/Cu/Co{sub 93}Zr{sub 7} trilayer structure. Time-resolved x-ray magnetic circular dichroism has been developed in transmission, with resonant field excitation at a FMR frequency of 2.3 GHz. Small-angle (to 0.2 deg), time-domain magnetization precession could be observed directly, and resolved to individual layers through elemental contrast at Ni, Fe, and Co edges. The phase sensitivity allowed direct measurement of relative phase lags in the precessional oscillations of individual elements and layers. A weak ferromagnetic coupling, difficult to ascertain in conventional FMR measurements, is revealed in the phase and amplitude response of individual layers across resonance.

Fe diffusion, oxidation, and reduction at the CoFeB/MgO interface studied by soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy and magnetic circular dichroism

We have studied the effect of annealing on the interface magnetization in a CoFeB/MgO structure which models the lower electrode in a magnetic tunnel junction device. We find that MgO deposition causes Fe to diffuse toward the CoFeB/MgO interface, where it preferentially bonds with oxygen to form a Fe-O-rich interfacial region with reduced magnetization. After annealing at 375 °C the compositional inhomogeneity remains; Fe is reduced back to a ferromagnetic metallic state and the full interfacial magnetization is regained.