Interface-engineered oxygen octahedral coupling in manganite heterostructures

Abstract

Control of the oxygen octahedral coupling (OOC) provides a large degree of freedom to manipulate physical phenomena in complex oxide heterostructures. Recently, local tuning of the tilt angle has been found to control the magnetic anisotropy in ultrathin films of manganites and ruthenates, while symmetry control can manipulate the metal insulator transition in nickelate thin films. The required connectivity of the octahedra across the heterostructure interface enforces a geometric constraint to the 3-dimensional octahedral network in epitaxial films. Such geometric constraint will either change the tilt angle to retain the connectivity of the corner shared oxygen octahedral network or guide the formation of a specific symmetry throughout the epitaxial film. Here, we will discuss the control of OOC in manganite heterostructures by interface-engineering. OOC driven magnetic and transport anisotropies have been realized in LSMO/NGO heterostructures. Competition between the interfacial OOC and the strain further away from the interface leads to a thickness driven sharp transition of the anisotropic properties. Furthermore, octahedral relaxation leading to a change of p-d hybridization driven by interfacial OOC appears to be the strongest factor in thickness related variations of magnetic and transport properties in epitaxial LSMO films on NGO substrates. The results unequivocally link the atomic structure near the interfaces to the macroscopic properties. The strong correlation between a controllable oxygen network and the functionalities will have significant impact on both fundamental research and technological application of correlated perovskite heterostructures. By controlling the interfacial OOC, it is possible to pattern in 3 dimensions the magnetization to achieve non-collinear magnetization in both in-plane and out of plane directions, thus making the heterostructures promising for application in orthogonal spin transfer devices, spin oscillators, and low field sensors.