Single-domain multiferroic BiFeO3 films

C. Y. Kuo, Z. Hu, J. C. Yang, S. C. Liao, Y. L. Huang, R. K. Vasudevan, M. B. Okatan, S. Jesse, S. V. Kalinin, L. Li, H. J. Liu, C. H. Lai, T. W. Pi, S. Agrestini, K. Chen, P. Ohresser, A. Tanaka, L. H. Tjeng, Y. H. Chu

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Abstract

The strong coupling between antiferromagnetism and ferroelectricity at room temperature found in BiFeO3 generates high expectations for the design and development of technological devices with novel functionalities. However, the multi-domain nature of the material tends to nullify the properties of interest and complicates the thorough understanding of the mechanisms that are responsible for those properties. Here we report the realization of a BiFeO3 material in thin film form with single-domain behaviour in both its magnetism and ferroelectricity: the entire film shows its antiferromagnetic axis aligned along the crystallographic b axis and its ferroelectric polarization along the c axis. With this we are able to reveal that the canted ferromagnetic moment due to the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is parallel to the a axis. Furthermore, by fabricating a Co/BiFeO3 heterostructure, we demonstrate that the ferromagnetic moment of the Co film does couple directly to the canted moment of BiFeO3.

Original languageEnglish
Article number12712
JournalNature Communications
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2016

Funding

This research was sponsored by the Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, BES, DOE (R.K.V. and S.V.K.). Research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which also provided support (M.B.O. and S.J.) and is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Prof. Ying-Hao Chu acknowledges supports from Ministry of Science and Technology, R.O.C. (MOST 103-2119-M-009-003-MY3), and Center for Interdisciplinary Science of National Chiao Tung University, Ministry of Education (MOE-ATU 101W961).

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