Robust room temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and anomalous Hall effect of sputtered NiCo2O4film

Biao Zheng; Xianghao Ji; Mingzhu Xue; Caihong Jia; Chaoyang Kang; Weifeng Zhang; Jinbo Yang; Mingliang Tian; Xuegang Chen

doi:10.1088/1361-648X/ad387b

Robust room temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and anomalous Hall effect of sputtered NiCo₂O₄film

J Phys Condens Matter. 2024 Apr 5;36(27). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/ad387b.

Authors

Biao Zheng^{1

2}, Xianghao Ji², Mingzhu Xue³, Caihong Jia⁴, Chaoyang Kang⁴, Weifeng Zhang⁴, Jinbo Yang⁵, Mingliang Tian⁶, Xuegang Chen^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Center of Free Electron Laser & High Magnetic Field, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, People's Republic of China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Quantum Matter Science, School of Future Technology, Henan University, Zhengzhou 450046, People's Republic of China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
⁶ School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, People's Republic of China.
⁷ Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Anhui Key Laboratory of Magnetic Functional Materials and Devices, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 38537304
DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/ad387b

Abstract

Inverse spinel ferrimagnetic NiCo₂O₄(NCO) exhibits volatile physical properties due to the complex ion/valence occupation, which complicates the study its intrinsic properties. In this work, robust room temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is distinctly observed in high-quality RF-sputtered NCO film down to 3 uc (2.4 nm), confirmed by the room temperature anomalous Hall effect. The NCO films show a good metallic conductivity with a dimensional driven metal-insulator transition. The scaling relation between anomalous Hall conductivity (σxy) and the longitudinal conductivity (σxx) reveals the dirty metal behavior in conjunction with the contribution of intrinsic Berry phase or disorder-enhanced electron correlation contribute to the anomalous Hall effect for thick films while the dirty scaling law dominates for the thin films. This work introduces an oxide candidate with robust room temperature PMA as well as massive production ability for the functional spintronic applications.

Keywords: anomalous Hall effect; ferrimagnetism; room temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; sputtered NiCo2O4 film.