ABSTRACT
The development of skyrmionic devices requires a suitable tuning of material parameters to stabilize skyrmions and control their density. It has been demonstrated recently that different skyrmion types can be simultaneously stabilized at room temperature in heterostructures involving ferromagnets, ferrimagnets, and heavy metals, offering a new platform of coding binary information in the type of skyrmion instead of the presence/absence of skyrmions. Here, we tune the energy landscape of the two skyrmion types in such heterostructures by engineering the geometrical and material parameters of the individual layers. We find that a fine adjustment of the ferromagnetic layer thickness, and thus its magnetic anisotropy, allows the trilayer system to support either one of the skyrmion types or the coexistence of both and with varying densities.
ABSTRACT
Multiferroic materials demonstrating coexistence of magnetic and ferroelectric orders are promising candidates for magnetoelectric devices. While understanding the underlying mechanism of interplaying of ferroic properties is important, tailoring their properties to make them potential candidates for magnetoelectric devices is challenging. Here, the antiferromagnetic Neel ordering temperature above 200 K is realized in successfully stabilized epitaxial films of (Lu,Sc)FeO3 multiferroic oxide. The first-principles calculations show the shrinkage of in-plane lattice constants of the unit cells of the films on different substrates which corroborates well the enhancement of the Neel ordering temperature (TN ). The profound effect of lattice strain/stress at the interface due to differences of in-plane lattice constants on out of plane magnetic properties and on spin reorientation temperature in the antiferromagnetic region is further elucidated in the epitaxial films with and without buffer layer of Mn-doped LuFeO3 . Writing and reading ferroelectric domains reveal the ferroelectric response of the films at room temperature. Detailed electron microscopy shows the presence of lattice defects in atomic scale. First-principles calculations show that orbital rehybridization of rare-earth ions and oxygen is one of the main driving force of ferroelectricity along c-axis in thin films of hexagonal ferrites.
ABSTRACT
We report an effect of giant surface modification of a 5.6 nm thick BaTiO3 film grown on Si (100) substrate under poling by conductive tip of a scanning probe microscope (SPM). The surface can be locally elevated by about 9 nm under -20 V applied during scanning, resulting in the maximum strain of 160%. The threshold voltage for the surface modification is about 12 V. The modified topography is stable enough with time and slowly decays after poling with the rate ~0.02 nm/min. Strong vertical piezoresponse after poling is observed, too. Combined measurements by SPM and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) prove that the poled material develops high ferroelectric polarization that cannot be switched back even under an oppositely oriented electric field. The topography modification is hypothesized to be due to a strong Joule heating and concomitant interface reaction between underlying Si and BaTiO3. The top layer is supposed to become ferroelectric as a result of local crystallization of amorphous BaTiO3. This work opens up new possibilities to form nanoscale ferroelectric structures useful for various applications.
