Manipulating the metal-to-insulator transition and magnetic properties in manganite thin films via epitaxial strain

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.105.165426

Authors: Dong Li (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) , Bonan Zhu (University College London) , Dirk Backes (Diamond Light Source) , Larissa S. I. Veiga (University College London) , Tien-Lin Lee (Diamond Light Source) , Hongguang Wang (Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research) , Qian He (National University of Singapore) , Pinku Roy (Los Alamos National Laboratory; University at Buffalo - The State University of New York) , Jiaye Zhang (Xiamen University) , Jueli Shi (Xiamen University) , Aiping Chen (Los Alamos National Laboratory) , Peter A. Van Aken (Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research) , Quanxi Jia (University at Buffalo - The State University of New York) , Sarnjeet S. Dhesi (Diamond Light Source) , David O. Scanlon (University College London; Diamond Light Source) , Kelvin H. L. Zhang (Xiamen University) , Weiwei Li (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Review B , VOL 105

State: Published (Approved)
Published: April 2022
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 25425 , 26901 , 29616

Abstract: Strain engineering of epitaxial transition metal oxide heterostructures offers an intriguing opportunity to control electronic structures by modifying the interplay between spin, charge, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom. Here, we demonstrate that the electronic structure, magnetic and transport properties of La 0.9 Ba 0.1 MnO 3 thin films can be effectively controlled by epitaxial strain. Spectroscopic studies and first-principles calculations reveal that the orbital occupancy in Mn e g orbitals can be switched from the d 3 z 2 − r 2 orbital to the d x 2 − y 2 orbital by varying the strain from compressive to tensile. The change of orbital occupancy associated with Mn 3 d -O 2 p hybridization leads to dramatic modulation of the magnetic and electronic properties of strained La 0.9 Ba 0.1 MnO 3 thin films. Under moderate tensile strain, an emergent ferromagnetic insulating state with an enhanced ferromagnetic Curie temperature of 215 K is achieved. These findings not only deepen our understanding of electronic structures, magnetic and transport properties in the La 0.9 Ba 0.1 MnO 3 system, but also demonstrate the use of epitaxial strain as an effective knob to tune the electronic structures and related physical properties for potential spintronic device applications.

Journal Keywords: Epitaxial strain; Ferromagnetism; Ferromagnets; Thin films; Transition metal oxides; Atomic force microscopy; Epitaxy; First-principles calculations; Hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Magnetization measurements; Strain engineering; X-ray absorption s

Diamond Keywords: Ferromagnetism; Spintronics

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics


Instruments: I06-Nanoscience

Added On: 27/04/2022 09:22

Discipline Tags:

Surfaces Quantum Materials Physics Hard condensed matter - structures Electronics Magnetism Materials Science interfaces and thin films

Technical Tags:

Spectroscopy X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (HAXPES)