Davinder Kaur

Multiferroic tunnel junction of Ni50.3Mn36.9Sb12.8/BiFeO3/Ni50.3Mn36.9Sb12.8 for magneto-electric random access memory devices

A multiferroic tunnel junction composed of two ferromagnetic shape memory alloy electrodes separated by a multiferroic barrier was fabricated from a Ni50.3Mn36.9Sb12.8/BiFeO3/Ni50.3Mn36.9Sb12.8 trilayer. A large exchange bias field (HEB) of ∼59u2009Oe at room temperature was found for this trilayer. Besides the exchange bias effect in this multiferroic tunnel junction, one of the most interesting results was the magnetoelectric effect, which is manifested by the transfer of strain from the Ni50.3Mn36.9Sb12.8 electrodes to the BiFeO3 tunnel barrier. The magnetic field dependence of the junction resistance was observed at room temperature after aligning the ferroelectric polarization of the BiFeO3 barrier with the poling voltage of ±3u2009V. A change in junction resistance was also observed between the magnetic parallel and antiparallel states of the electrodes, suggesting an entire flip of the magnetic domains against the magnetic field. After reversing the polarization of the BiFeO3 barrier between the two direct...

Magnetron sputtered Cu3N/NiTiCu shape memory thin film heterostructures for MEMS applications

In the present study, for the first time, Cu3N/NiTiCu/Si heterostructures were successfully grown using magnetron sputtering technique. Nanocrystalline copper nitride (Cu3N with thickness ~200xa0nm) thin films and copper nanodots were subsequently deposited on the surface of 2-μm-thick NiTiCu shape memory thin films in order to improve the surface corrosion and nickel release properties of NiTiCu thin films. Interestingly, the phase transformation from martensite phase to austenite phase has been observed in Cu3N/NiTiCu heterostructures with corresponding change in texture and surface morphology of top Cu3N films. Field emission scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscope images of the heterostructures reveals the formation of 20-nm-sized copper nanodots on NiTiCu surface at higher deposition temperature (450xa0°C) of Cu3N. Cu3N passivated NiTiCu films possess low corrosion current density with higher corrosion potential and, therefore, better corrosion resistance as compared to pure NiTiCu films. The concentration of Ni released from the Cu3N/NiTiCu samples was observed to be much less than that of pure NiTiCu film. It can be reduced to the factor of about one-ninth after the surface passivation resulting in smooth, homogeneous and highly corrosion resistant surface. The antibacterial and cytotoxicity of pure and Cu3N coated NiTiCu thin films were investigated through green fluorescent protein expressing E. coli bacteria and human embryonic kidney cells. The results show the strong antibacterial property and non cytotoxicity of Cu3N/NiTiCu heterostructure. This work is of immense technological importance due to variety of BioMEMS applications.

Exchange bias effect in NiMnSb/CrN heterostructures deposited by magnetron sputtering

Exchange bias has been studied in various Ni50Mn36.8Sb13.2/CrN heterostructures with different CrN thicknesses (15u2009nm–80 nm), grown on Si (100) substrate using magnetron sputtering. The shift in hysteresis loop up to 51u2009Oe from the origin was observed at 10u2009K for Ni-Mn-Sb film without CrN layer. On the other hand, a significant shifting of hysteresis loop was observed with antiferromagnetic (AFM) CrN layer in Ni50Mn36.8Sb13.2/CrN heterostructure. The exchange coupled 140u2009nm Ni50Mn36.8Sb13.2/35u2009nm CrN heterostructure exhibited a relatively large exchange coupling field of 148u2009Oe at 10u2009K compared to other films, which may be related to uncompensated and pinned AFM spins at FM-AFM interface and different AFM domain structures for different thicknesses of CrN layer. Further nanoindentation measurements revealed the higher values of hardness and elastic modulus of about 12.7u2009±u20090.38u2009GPa and 179.83u2009±u20091.24u2009GPa in Ni50Mn36.8Sb13.2/CrN heterostructures making them promising candidate for various multifunctional MEM...

Direct and converse magneto-electric coupling in ferromagnetic shape memory alloys based thin film multiferroic heterostructures

The ferromagnetic shape memory driven alterations in strain mediated direct and converse magnetoelectric coupling (DME & CME) was realized in sputtered deposited PZT/Ni-Mn-In multiferroic hetero-junctions. The ferroelectric (P-E loops), dielectric (e vs frequency, e-E), and voltage modulated magnetic anisotropy measurements (M-E curves) were executed in the plane (hard axis) and out of the plane (easy axis) of the functional magnetic material based PZT/Ni-Mn-In bilayer structure. A gain of ∼16u2009μC/cm2 in maximum polarization (Pmax) and ∼12% in tunability (nr) were observed along an easy magnetic axis of Ni-Mn-In. The butterfly shaped normalized magnetization (M/Ms) vs electric field (applied across the heterostructure) [M-E] plots evident the strain character of CME coupling. The co-action of (i) dissimilar carrier concentration between high symmetric austenitic cubic phase and low symmetry martensite phase of ferromagnetic shape memory alloys and (ii) martensitic transformation induced magnetization chang...