Turning antiferromagnetic Sm0.34Sr0.66MnO3 into a 140 K ferromagnet using a nanocomposite strain tuning approach

Ady Suwardi, Bhagwati Prasad, Shinbuhm Lee, Eun Mi Choi, Ping Lu, Wenrui Zhang, Leigang Li, Mark Blamire, Quanxi Jia, Haiyan Wang, Kui Yao, Judith L. MacManus-Driscoll

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ferromagnetic insulating thin films of Sm0.34Sr0.66MnO3 (SSMO) on (001) SrTiO3 substrates with a TC of 140 K were formed in self-assembled epitaxial nanocomposite thin films. High TC ferromagnetism was enabled through vertical epitaxy of the SSMO matrix with embedded, stiff, ∼40 nm Sm2O3 nanopillars giving a c/a ratio close to 1 in the SSMO. In contrast, bulk and single phase SSMO films of the same composition have much stronger tetragonal distortion, the bulk having c/a >1 and the films having c/a <1, both of which give rise to antiferromagnetic coupling. The work demonstrates a unique and simple route to creating ferromagnetic insulators for spintronics applications where currently available ferromagnetic insulators are either hard to grow and/or have very low TC.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8083-8090
Number of pages8
JournalNanoscale
Volume8
Issue number15
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 Apr 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

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