Oscillatory Non-Collinear Magnetism Induced by Interfacial Charge Transfer in Metallic Oxide Superlattices

Published

November 22, 2016

Author(s)

Jason D. Hoffman, Brian Kirby, Jihwan Kwon, Gilberto Fabbris, John W. Freeland, Ivar Martin, Olle G. Heinonen, Paul Steadman, Hua Zhou, Christian M. Schleputz, Suzanne G. E. te Velthuis, Jian-Min Zuo, Anand Bhattacharya

Abstract

Interfaces between correlated complex oxides are promising avenues to realize new forms of magnetism that arise as a result of charge transfer, proximity effects and locally broken symmetries. We report upon the discovery of a non-collinear magnetic structure in superlattices of the ferro-magnetic metallic oxide La_2/3Sr_1/3MnO₃ (LSMO) and the correlated metal LaNiO₃ (LNO). The exchange interaction between LSMO layers is mediated by the intervening LNO, such that the angle between the magnetization of neighboring LSMO layers varies in an oscillatory manner with the thickness of of the LNO layer. The magnetic field, temperature, and spacer thickness dependence of the non-collinear structure are inconsistent with the bilinear and biquadratic interactions that are used to model the magnetic structure in conventional metallic multilayers. A model that couples the LSMO layers to a helical spin state within the LNO fits the observed behavior. We propose that the spin-helix results from the interaction between a spatially varying spin susceptibility within the LNO and interfacial charge transfer that created localized Ni²⁺ states. This provides a new approach to engineering non-collinear spin textures in metallic oxide heterostructures that can be exploited in devices based on both spin and charge transport.

Citation

Physical Review X

Volume

6

Issue

4

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

oxides, magnetic multilayers

Citation

Hoffman, J. , Kirby, B. , Kwon, J. , Fabbris, G. , Freeland, J. , Martin, I. , Heinonen, O. , Steadman, P. , Zhou, H. , Schleputz, C. , te Velthuis, S. , Zuo, J. and Bhattacharya, A. (2016), Oscillatory Non-Collinear Magnetism Induced by Interfacial Charge Transfer in Metallic Oxide Superlattices, Physical Review X, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=917633 (Accessed October 4, 2024)