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Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in compressive strained La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 films

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Abstract

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) plays a critical role in spintronics, giving rise to improvements in fundamental research and industrial production. Generally, PMA originates mainly from the spin–orbit interaction with perpendicular orbital moment. However, electron orbitals are difficult to tune once they emerge. Here, we propose a simple and effective method for preparing (001)-oriented ultrathin La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) films with PMA, which is induced by compressive strain and surface symmetry breaking. Moreover, PMA was effectively strengthened by means of annealing under applied magnetic field. X-ray linear dichroism spectra reveal that PMA should be attributed to the preferential occupancy of the 3z2 − r2 orbital in LSMO films. The results presented here show that PMA can be manipulated by orbital reconstruction in perovskite manganite films under compressive strain through a simple and effective strategy. These findings illustrate a new method for designing and controlling magnetic anisotropy and might advance fundamental applications of orbital physics and spintronics.

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by the NSFC (Nos. 51571136, 61434002, and 51871137). The authors acknowledge the Beamline BL08U1A (Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai, China) and Beamline BL12-a (National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Hefei, China) stations for XAS measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Magnetic Molecules and Magnetic Information Materials of Ministry of Education, The School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen, 041004, China

    Zhengyu Xiao, Fei Zhang, Rui Wang, Guowei Zhou, Zhiyong Quan & Xiaohong Xu

  2. Research Institute of Materials Science, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen, 041004, China

    Zhengyu Xiao, Guowei Zhou, Zhiyong Quan & Xiaohong Xu

  3. Department of Chemistry, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore, 54600, Pakistan

    Muhammad Akhyar Farrukh

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  1. Zhengyu Xiao
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Xiao, Z., Zhang, F., Farrukh, M.A. et al. Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in compressive strained La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 films. J Mater Sci 54, 9017–9024 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03517-5

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