Reversible magnetism transition at ferroelectric oxide heterointerface

Jialu Chen; Zijun Zhang; Liang Luo; Yunhao Lu; Cheng Song; Di Cheng; Xing Chen; Wei Li; Zhaohui Ren; Jigang Wang; He Tian; Ze Zhang; Gaorong Han

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2020.09.024

Reversible magnetism transition at ferroelectric oxide heterointerface

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2020 Dec 30;65(24):2094-2099. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.09.024. Epub 2020 Sep 19.

Authors

Jialu Chen¹, Zijun Zhang², Liang Luo³, Yunhao Lu⁴, Cheng Song⁵, Di Cheng³, Xing Chen², Wei Li¹, Zhaohui Ren⁶, Jigang Wang⁷, He Tian⁸, Ze Zhang², Gaorong Han⁹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Cyrus Tang Center for Sensor Materials and Application, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Cyrus Tang Center for Sensor Materials and Application, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; Center of Electron Microscope, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory-USDOE, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Cyrus Tang Center for Sensor Materials and Application, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. Electronic address: renzh@zju.edu.cn.
⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory-USDOE, Ames, IA 50011, USA. Electronic address: jgwang@iastate.edu.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Cyrus Tang Center for Sensor Materials and Application, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; Center of Electron Microscope, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. Electronic address: hetian@zju.edu.cn.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Cyrus Tang Center for Sensor Materials and Application, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. Electronic address: hgr@zju.edu.cn.

PMID: 36732962
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.09.024

Abstract

Oxide heterointerface is a platform to create unprecedented two-dimensional electron gas, superconductivity and ferromagnetism, arising from a polar discontinuity at the interface. In particular, the ability to tune these intriguing effects paves a way to elucidate their fundamental physics and to develop novel electronic/magnetic devices. In this work, we report for the first time that a ferroelectric polarization screening at SrTiO₃/PbTiO₃ interface is able to drive an electronic construction of Ti atom, giving rise to room-temperature ferromagnetism. Surprisingly, such ferromagnetism can be switched to antiferromagnetism by applying a magnetic field, which is reversible. A coupling of itinerant electrons with local moments at interfacial Ti 3d orbital was proposed to explain the magnetism. The localization of the itinerant electrons under a magnetic field is responsible for the suppression of magnetism. These findings provide new insights into interfacial magnetism and their control by magnetic field relevant interfacial electrons promising for device applications.

Keywords: Ferroelectric polarization; Interface; Magnetic transition; SrTiO(3)/PbTiO(3).