ABSTRACT
Reducing the material sizes to the nanometer length scale leads to drastic modifications of the propagating lattice excitations (phonons) and their interactions with electrons and magnons. In EuO, a promising material for spintronic applications in which a giant spin-phonon interaction is present, this might imply a reduction of the degree of spin polarization in thin films. Therefore, a comprehensive investigation of the lattice dynamics and spin-phonon interaction in EuO films is necessary for practical applications. We report a systematic lattice dynamics study of ultrathin EuO(001) films using nuclear inelastic scattering on the Mössbauer-active isotope 151Eu and first-principles theory. The films were epitaxially grown on YAlO3(110), which induces a tensile strain of ca. 2%. By reducing the EuO layer thickness from 8 nm to a sub-monolayer coverage, the Eu-partial phonon density of states (PDOS) reveals a gradual enhancement of the number of low-energy phonon states and simultaneous broadening and suppression of the peaks. These deviations from bulk features lead to significant anomalies in the vibrational thermodynamic and elastic properties calculated from the PDOS. The experimental results, supported by first-principles theory, unveil a reduction of the strength of the spin-phonon interaction in the tensile-strained EuO by a factor of four compared to a strain-free lattice.
ABSTRACT
A portable ultrahigh-vacuum system optimized for in situ variable-temperature X-ray scattering and spectroscopy experiments at synchrotron radiation beamlines was constructed and brought into operation at the synchrotron radiation facility ANKA of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. Here the main features of the new instrument are described and its capabilities demonstrated. The surface morphology, structure and stoichiometry of EuSi2 nano-islands are determined by in situ grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. A size reduction of about a factor of two of the nano-islands due to silicide decomposition and Eu desorption is observed after sample annealing at 1270 K for 30 min.
