Abnormal magnetic ordering and ferromagnetism in perovskite ScMnO3 film

Abstract

Bulk multiferroic ScMnO3 is the stable hexagonal phase, and it is very difficult to prepare its perovskite orthorhombic phase even under high pressure. We fabricated the orthorhombic ScMnO3 thin film by pulsed laser deposition through suitable substrate LaAlO3 and found that nano-scale twin-like domains are naturally formed in the thin film. Magnetic properties of the orthorhombic ScMnO3 thin films show that, besides normal antiferromagnetic ordering at 47 K, an anomalous magnetic transition occurs at 27 K for 60 nm film and at 36 K for 150 nm film only along the c-axis, which is absent in the ab-plane. Moreover, the second magnetic transition for both films is suppressed when the applied field increases from 1 kOe to 10 kOe. In addition, the ferromagnetism shows up in both films at 10 K, and saturation magnetization increases dramatically in 60 nm film compared with 150 nm film. We propose that the second magnetic transition might be more of lattice strain effect and also related to magnetism-induced ferroelectric polarization in orthorhombic RMnO3 thin films and low-temperature ferromagnetic properties in our films originate from the nano-scale twin-like domain structure.

Nanoengineering room temperature ferroelectricity into orthorhombic SmMnO3 films

“…In terms of the magnetic properties, low-temperature ferromagnetism with magnetisation (M) values near~1µ B Mn −1 have been reported in thin o-RMnO 3 films 11,12 . Ferromagnetic (FM) ordering in o-RMnO 3 originates due to epitaxial strain which changes the balance between AFM and FM interactions 13,14 and breaks the long range AFM order at the boundary of different domains 5,15 .…”

First-principles screening of ABO3 oxides with two magnetic sublattices

“…Other polymorphs occur frequently among ABO 3 compounds with small A cations. Thus, for example, ScFeO 3 presents the bixbyite structure at ambient conditions [18]; manganites like ScMnO 3 present a well-known hexagonal polymorph [20,21]. Interestingly, in many cases materials with these chemical formulas can be stabilized as LN-or I-type phases, using appropriate synthesis routes [15].…”