Gate control of ferromagnetic insulating phase in lightly-doped La0.875Sr0.125MnO3−δ film

Abstract

The electric field effect on the lightly doped La0.875Sr0.125MnO3−δ (LSMO) thin film in electric double-layer transistors was investigated by measuring transport properties of the film under various gate voltages. It was found that the positive gate bias leads to an increase of the charge-orbital ordering (COO) transition temperature and a decrease of the Curie temperature TC, indicating the suppression of ferromagnetic metal (FMM) phases and preference of COO/ferromagnetic insulator (FMI) with the hole depletion by gate bias. Such different electric field effects can be ascribed to the weakening of the ferromagnetic interaction and enhancement of Jahn-Teller (JT) distortion caused by the transformation of JT inactive Mn4+-ions to JT active Mn3+-ions. Moreover, a step-like increase in the high temperature region of the ρ-T curve, which is related to the transition of cooperative JT distortion, was found to develop with increasing the positive bias, indicating that the cooperative JT distorted phase is stabilized by the depletion of holes in LSMO film. These results demonstrate that the modulation of holes via electric field strongly affects the balance between energy gains of different interactions and thus produce different effects on the competing FMI, FMM, and cooperative JT distorted phases in LSMO film.