Orientation-Driven Strong Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy in La_0.67Sr_0.33MnO₃–SrIrO₃ Heterostructures

Abstract

Strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is crucial for high-performance spintronic devices. However, in transition-metal oxides, it is challenging to achieve an excellent PMA property (anisotropy energy, K U > 106 erg/cm3), limiting their application potential. Here, we report a pathway to achieve obvious PMA in 3d–5d [nLa0.67Sr0.33MnO3,nSrIrO3]m ([nLSMO, nSIO]m) heterostructures via the cooperation of interfacial engineering and crystal orientation. By depositing multilayers with a (110) orientation, significant PMA is observed despite the fact that the bare LSMO and (001)-oriented heterostructures show in-plane magnetic anisotropy. First-principles calculations suggest that in the (110)-oriented heterosystems, SIO exhibits a large and perpendicular single-ion anisotropy attributed to its strong spin–orbit coupling effect, which leads to the PMA through strong orbital hybridization between Mn and Ir ions at the LSMO/SIO interface. By varying thicknesses (n) of LSMO and SIO, the K U can be optimized to 4 × 106 erg/cm3. Moreover, the conductive behavior can also be drastically altered between insulation and metallicity with the n change, implying the potential for simultaneously obtaining ferromagnetic metals and insulators with sizable PMA in one oxide heterosystem. These findings highlight the importance of interfacial engineering and crystalline orientation in tuning PMA in oxides and provide a feasible route for developing high-performance oxide-based spintronic devices.

The Success of Fabrication of Pure SmFe2 Phase Film with Outstanding Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy

“…Magnetic anisotropy is a key characteristic of magnetic materials and plays an important role in various applications, such as spin electronic devices [1][2][3][4], microelectromechanical systems [5], magnetic nanosensors [6], magnetic storage [7], and magnetic recording [8,9]. In magnetic films, the easy magnetization direction is often preferentially oriented within the plane, making it difficult to obtain films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, which severely limits the development of high-performance functional devices [10,11].…”