Interfacial strain related magnetic anisotropy and spin rearrangement in multiferroic BiFeO3/BaTiO3 multilayers

Multiferroic materials have emerged as a promising path towards efficiently controllable and stable magnetic systems. These materials couple different forms of ordering, such as ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in the case... [ view full abstract ]

Multiferroic materials have emerged as a promising path towards efficiently controllable and stable magnetic systems. These materials couple different forms of ordering, such as ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in the case of magnetoelectric coupling. While rare as single phase materials, they can be designed in order to combine the properties of different materials, leading to appearance of artificial multiferroicity. Our study focuses on multiferroic systems composed of double layers of BiFeO₃ and BaTiO₃ thin films. It has already been shown that interface mediated strain generates perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and remarkably high values of magnetoelectric coupling in these systems [1]. In this study, we have used the recently developed Synchrotron Mössbauer Spectroscopy (SMS) technique at ESRF to locally probe the Fe contained in BFO/BTO multilayers grown by pulsed laser deposition. We have thus investigated the influence of an applied electric field on the magnetization of strained BFO within multilayered thin films and the interfacial spin rearrangement it might trigger. These results will offer new insights into the tunability of multiferroic systems and their possible integration in spintronics via electrical control of the magnetization.

References

• Vera Lazenka et al., Applied Physics Letters 110, 092902 (2017)