Polar-Graded Multiferroic SrMnO3 Thin Films

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Roger Guzmán ; Laura Maurel ; Eric Langenberg ; Andrew R. Lupini ; Pedro A. Algarabel ; José A. Pardo ; César Magén
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：April 13, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：16
• 期：4
• 页码：2221-2227
• 全文大小：600K
• 年卷期：0
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

Engineering defects and strains in oxides provides a promising route for the quest of thin film materials with coexisting ferroic orders, multiferroics, with efficient magnetoelectric coupling at room temperature. Precise control of the strain gradient would enable custom tailoring of the multiferroic properties but presently remains challenging. Here we explore the existence of a polar-graded state in epitaxially strained antiferromagnetic SrMnO₃ thin films, whose polar nature was predicted theoretically and recently demonstrated experimentally. By means of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy we map the polar rotation of the ferroelectric polarization with atomic resolution, both far from and near the domain walls, and find flexoelectricity resulting from vertical strain gradients. The origin of this particular strain state is a gradual distribution of oxygen vacancies across the film thickness, according to electron energy loss spectroscopy. Herein we present a chemistry-mediated route to induce polar rotations in oxygen-deficient multiferroic films, resulting in flexoelectric polar rotations and with potentially enhanced piezoelectricity.