Interfacial Coupling in Multiferroic/Ferromagnet Heterostructures

Published

April 30, 2013

Author(s)

M. Trassin, J. D. Clarkson, Samuel R. Bowden, j. Liu, J. T. Heron, R. J. Paull, Elke Arenholz, Daniel T. Pierce, John Unguris

Abstract

We report local probe investigations of the magnetic interaction between BiFeO3 films and a ferromagnetic Co0.9Fe0.1 layer. Within the constraints of intralayer exchange coupling in the Co0.9Fe0.1, the multiferroic imprint in the ferromagnet results in a collinear arrangement of the local magnetization and the in-plane BiFeO3 ferroelectric polarization. An in-plane effective coupling field of order 10 mT is derived. Measurements as a function of multiferroic layer thickness find that the influence of the multiferroic layer on the magnetic layer becomes negligible for 3 nm thick BiFeO3 films. We ascribe this breakdown in the exchange coupling to a weakening of the antiferromagnetic order in the ultrathin BiFeO3 film based on our X-ray linear dichroism measurements. These observations are consistent with an interfacial exchange coupling between the CoFe moments and a canted antiferromagnetic moment in the BiFO3.

Citation

Physical Review B

Volume

87

Issue

13

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

multiferroic, ferromagnet, oxide, SEMPA, PFM, XLD

Citation

Trassin, M. , Clarkson, J. , Bowden, S. , Liu, J. , Heron, J. , Paull, R. , Arenholz, E. , Pierce, D. and Unguris, J. (2013), Interfacial Coupling in Multiferroic/Ferromagnet Heterostructures, Physical Review B, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=913454 (Accessed October 7, 2025)