D. Heiman

Quantification of strain and charge co-mediated magnetoelectric coupling on ultra-thin Permalloy/PMN-PT interface

Strain and charge co-mediated magnetoelectric coupling are expected in ultra-thin ferromagnetic/ferroelectric multiferroic heterostructures, which could lead to significantly enhanced magnetoelectric coupling. It is however challenging to observe the combined strain charge mediated magnetoelectric coupling, and difficult in quantitatively distinguish these two magnetoelectric coupling mechanisms. We demonstrated in this work, the quantification of the coexistence of strain and surface charge mediated magnetoelectric coupling on ultra-thin Ni0.79Fe0.21/PMN-PT interface by using a Ni0.79Fe0.21/Cu/PMN-PT heterostructure with only strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling as a control. The NiFe/PMN-PT heterostructure exhibited a high voltage induced effective magnetic field change of 375 Oe enhanced by the surface charge at the PMN-PT interface. Without the enhancement of the charge-mediated magnetoelectric effect by inserting a Cu layer at the PMN-PT interface, the electric field modification of effective magnetic field was 202 Oe. By distinguishing the magnetoelectric coupling mechanisms, a pure surface charge modification of magnetism shows a strong correlation to polarization of PMN-PT. A non-volatile effective magnetic field change of 104 Oe was observed at zero electric field originates from the different remnant polarization state of PMN-PT. The strain and charge co-mediated magnetoelectric coupling in ultra-thin magnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures could lead to power efficient and non-volatile magnetoelectric devices with enhanced magnetoelectric coupling.

Hall carrier density and magnetoresistance measurements in thin film vanadium dioxide across the metal-insulator transition

Temperature-dependent magnetotransport measurements in magnetic fields of up to 12 T were performed on thin-film vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) across the metal-insulator transition (MIT). The Hall carrier density increases by 4 orders of magnitude at the MIT and accounts almost entirely for the resistance change. The Hall mobility varies little across the MIT and remains low, ~0.1 cm 2 /V sec. Electrons are found to be the major carriers on both sides of the MIT. Small positive magnetoresistance in the semiconducting phase is measured.

Ferromagnetism in thin-film Cr-doped topological insulator Bi2Se3

We report on the observation of ferromagnetism in epitaxial thin films of the topological insulator compound Bi2Se3 with chromium doping. The structural, magnetic, and magnetoelectrical properties of Bi2Se3 were investigated for Cr concentrations up to 10%. For a Cr content up to ∼5% the films are of good crystalline quality, with the lattice parameter a decreasing and the lattice parameter c increasing with increasing Cr concentration. The Curie temperature reached a maximum TC = 20 K for 5.2% Cr. Well-defined ferromagnetic hysteresis in the magnetization and in the magnetoresistance was also observed in these films.

A high-temperature ferromagnetic topological insulating phase by proximity coupling

Topological insulators are insulating materials that display conducting surface states protected by time-reversal symmetry, wherein electron spins are locked to their momentum. This unique property opens up new opportunities for creating next-generation electronic, spintronic and quantum computation devices. Introducing ferromagnetic order into a topological insulator system without compromising its distinctive quantum coherent features could lead to the realization of several predicted physical phenomena. In particular, achieving robust long-range magnetic order at the surface of the topological insulator at specific locations without introducing spin-scattering centres could open up new possibilities for devices. Here we use spin-polarized neutron reflectivity experiments to demonstrate topologically enhanced interface magnetism by coupling a ferromagnetic insulator (EuS) to a topological insulator (Bi2Se3) in a bilayer system. This interfacial ferromagnetism persists up to room temperature, even though the ferromagnetic insulator is known to order ferromagnetically only at low temperatures (<17 K). The magnetism induced at the interface resulting from the large spin–orbit interaction and the spin–momentum locking of the topological insulator surface greatly enhances the magnetic ordering (Curie) temperature of this bilayer system. The ferromagnetism extends ~2 nm into the Bi2Se3 from the interface. Owing to the short-range nature of the ferromagnetic exchange interaction, the time-reversal symmetry is broken only near the surface of a topological insulator, while leaving its bulk states unaffected. The topological magneto-electric response originating in such an engineered topological insulator could allow efficient manipulation of the magnetization dynamics by an electric field, providing an energy-efficient topological control mechanism for future spin-based technologies.

Reflectance line shapes from GaAs/Ga1−xAlxAs quantum well structures

Reflectance experiments on GaAs/Ga1−xAlxAs single quantum well structures were performed at 4.2 K, with different thicknesses of the front GaAlAs barrier layer (100–1000 A). The observed exciton reflectance line shapes depend strongly on the thickness of the front barrier layer due to the interferences between the reflected waves from the front surface and the quantum well interfaces. Calculations of the reflectance line shapes show good agreement with the observations. The absorption coefficient for the electron heavy‐hole exciton transition in a single quantum well sample is determined. Our study also provides a new understanding of the line shapes measured in photoreflectance experiments.

Strong interfacial exchange field in the graphene/EuS heterostructure

Exploiting 2D materials for spintronic applications can potentially realize next-generation devices featuring low power consumption and quantum operation capability. The magnetic exchange field (MEF) induced by an adjacent magnetic insulator enables efficient control of local spin generation and spin modulation in 2D devices without compromising the delicate material structures. Using graphene as a prototypical 2D system, we demonstrate that its coupling to the model magnetic insulator (EuS) produces a substantial MEF (>14 T) with the potential to reach hundreds of tesla, which leads to orders-of-magnitude enhancement of the spin signal originating from the Zeeman spin Hall effect. Furthermore, the new ferromagnetic ground state of Dirac electrons resulting from the strong MEF may give rise to quantized spin-polarized edge transport. The MEF effect shown in our graphene/EuS devices therefore provides a key functionality for future spin logic and memory devices based on emerging 2D materials in classical and quantum information processing.

Linear magnetoresistance in topological insulator thin films: Quantum phase coherence effects at high temperatures

In addition to the weak antilocalization cusp observed in the magnetoresistance (MR) of topological insulators at low temperatures and low magnetic fields, we find that the high-field MR in Bi2Te2Se is linear in field. At fields up to B = 14 T, the slope of this linear-like MR is nearly independent of temperature over the range T = 7 to 150 K. We find that the linear MR arises from the competition between a logarithmic phase coherence component and a quadratic component. The quantum phase coherence dominates up to high temperatures, where the coherence length remains longer than the mean free path of electrons.

Large coercivity in nanostructured rare-earth-free MnxGa films

The magnetic hysteresis of MnxGa films exhibit remarkably large coercive fields as high as μoHC = 2.5 T when fabricated with nanoscale particles of a suitable size and orientation. This coercivity is an order of magnitude larger than in well-ordered epitaxial film counterparts and bulk materials. The enhanced coercivity is attributed to the combination of large magnetocrystalline anisotropy and ∼50-100 nm size nanoparticles. The large coercivity is also replicated in the electrical properties through the anomalous Hall effect. The magnitude of the coercivity approaches that found in rare-earth magnets, making them attractive for rare-earth-free magnet applications.

Magnetic and transport properties of Mn2CoAl oriented films

The structure, magnetic, and transport properties of thin films of the Heusler ferrimagnet Mn2CoAl have been investigated for properties related to spin gapless semiconductors. Oriented films were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates and the structure was found to transform from tetragonal to cubic for increasing annealing temperature. The anomalous Hall resistivity is found to be proportional to the square of the longitudinal resistivity and magnetization expected for a topological Berry curvature origin. A delicate balance of the spin-polarized carrier type when coupled with voltage gate-tuning could significantly impact advanced electronic devices.

Possible room-temperature ferromagnetism in hydrogenated carbon nanotubes

We find that ferromagnetism can be induced in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by introducing hydrogen. Multiwalled CNTs grown inside porous alumina templates contain a large density of defects resulting in significant hydrogen uptake when annealed at high temperatures. This hydrogen incorporation produces H-complex and adatom magnetism which generates a sizable ferromagnetic moment and a Curie temperature near T(C)=1000 K. We studied the conditions for the incorporation of hydrogen, the temperature-dependent magnetic behavior, and the dependence of the ferromagnetism on the size of the nanotubes.