Strain-Induced Atomic-Scale Building Blocks for Ferromagnetism in Epitaxial LaCoO3

Sangmoon Yoon; Xiang Gao; Jong Mok Ok; Zhaoliang Liao; Myung Geun Han; Yimei Zhu; Panchapakesan Ganesh; Matthew F. Chisholm; Woo Seok Choi; Ho Nyung Lee

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00756

Strain-Induced Atomic-Scale Building Blocks for Ferromagnetism in Epitaxial LaCoO₃

Sangmoon Yoon, Xiang Gao, Jong Mok Ok, Zhaoliang Liao, Myung Geun Han, Yimei Zhu, Panchapakesan Ganesh, Matthew F. Chisholm, Woo Seok Choi, Ho Nyung Lee

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

The origin of strain-induced ferromagnetism, which is robust regardless of the type and degree of strain in LaCoO3 (LCO) thin films, is enigmatic despite intensive research efforts over the past decade. Here, by combining scanning transmission electron microscopy with ab initio density functional theory plus U calculations, we report that the ferromagnetism does not emerge directly from the strain itself but rather from the creation of compressed structural units within ferroelastically formed twin-wall domains. The compressed structural units are magnetically active with the rocksalt-type high-spin/low-spin order. Our study highlights that the ferroelastic nature of ferromagnetic structural units is important for understanding the intriguing ferromagnetic properties in LCO thin films.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4006-4012
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nano Letters
Volume	21
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00756
State	Published - May 12 2021

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. The work at Brookhaven National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, under Contract No. DE- SC0012704. P.G., for the theory part of the paper, was supported by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. W.S.C. was supported by the Basic Science Research Programs through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (NRF-2021R1A2C2011340 ).

Funders	Funder number
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering	DE- SC0012704
National Research Foundation of Korea	NRF-2021R1A2C2011340

Keywords

Complex oxides
Electron microscopy
Epitaxial thin film
Ferromagnetism

Access to Document

10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00756

Cite this

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title = "Strain-Induced Atomic-Scale Building Blocks for Ferromagnetism in Epitaxial LaCoO3",

abstract = "The origin of strain-induced ferromagnetism, which is robust regardless of the type and degree of strain in LaCoO3 (LCO) thin films, is enigmatic despite intensive research efforts over the past decade. Here, by combining scanning transmission electron microscopy with ab initio density functional theory plus U calculations, we report that the ferromagnetism does not emerge directly from the strain itself but rather from the creation of compressed structural units within ferroelastically formed twin-wall domains. The compressed structural units are magnetically active with the rocksalt-type high-spin/low-spin order. Our study highlights that the ferroelastic nature of ferromagnetic structural units is important for understanding the intriguing ferromagnetic properties in LCO thin films.",

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AU - Yoon, Sangmoon

AU - Gao, Xiang

AU - Ok, Jong Mok

AU - Liao, Zhaoliang

AU - Han, Myung Geun

AU - Zhu, Yimei

AU - Ganesh, Panchapakesan

AU - Chisholm, Matthew F.

AU - Choi, Woo Seok

AU - Lee, Ho Nyung

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