Shabadi, Vikas (2017)
Epitaxial engineering of ferrimagnetic double perovskites.
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Ph.D. Thesis, Primary publication
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Dissertation - Vikas Shabadi -
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Item Type: | Ph.D. Thesis | ||||
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Type of entry: | Primary publication | ||||
Title: | Epitaxial engineering of ferrimagnetic double perovskites | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Referees: | Alff, Prof. Dr. Lambert ; Donner, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang | ||||
Date: | 2017 | ||||
Place of Publication: | Darmstadt | ||||
Date of oral examination: | 21 April 2017 | ||||
Abstract: | Double perovskite (DP) oxides of the type A2BB’O6 (A: 12-coordinated large di/tri-valent cation; B/B’: octahedrally coordinated transition metals) offer a unique material framework to engineer a wide range of physical functionalities. In its simplest form, the DP structure involves a cubic array of A-cations which is interspersed by corner-sharing BO6 and B’O6 octahedra, often arranged in a rock-salt type order. The choice of the B/B’ cations and their coupling within the ordered DP structure are known to largely determine the electronic structure and the resulting functionality of the compounds. Compounds such as the 3d5-4d1 coupled Sr2FeMoO6 (which exhibits fully spin polarized charge carriers and large magnetoresistance at room-temperature) and the 3d3-5d3 coupled Sr2CrOsO6 (which shows a high ferrimagnetic ordering temperature and a positive temperature coefficient of coercivity) stand as prominent examples for the diversity of physical functionalities achievable in these compounds. Yet, it is interesting to note that a vast majority of all possible DP compounds remain experimentally unexplored, mainly due to the meta-stable nature of some compounds and/or due to challenging synthesis procedures. With recent advances in thin film technology, particularly with techniques such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD), the ability to stabilize complex multi-cation oxides by epitaxial strain under non-equilibrium growth conditions has been well established. Furthermore, the PLD process has also been noted to support spontaneous cation ordering driven by a contrast in size/charge of cations. These developments provide an effective alternative route to overcome the synthesis challenges associated with meta-stable DP compounds. In this work, we use the PLD based thin film approach to explore ferrimagnetic insulating phases among DPs. Such phases when stabilized as thin films can have wide range of possible device applications in the areas of spin-electronics and modern computing. In addition, such compounds can also be viable templates for achieving single phase type I multiferroism, if the A-sites are subsequently substituted with a ferroelectric active cation such as Bi3+. The study was carried out across two families of double perovskites, namely 3d-3d and 3d-5d (the nomenclature refers to the elemental periods from which the B and B’ cations are chosen). Within the 3d-3d family, we chose to explore Bi2FeCrO6 (BFCO), a compound theoretically predicted to be a robust ferrimagnetic-ferroelectric. Epitaxial thin films of BFCO grown via PLD on single crystal SrTiO3 (STO) substrates were phase pure and fully strained. Distinct and intense superstructure peaks (SPs) were observed in XRD scans along the pseudo-cubic [111] direction. Considering the low scattering contrast between Fe and Cr, intensity of the SPs appeared suspiciously high. Using the photon energy dependence of contrast between atomic scattering factors of Fe and Cr, a spontaneous chemical ordering at the B-site was ruled out. Detailed structural calculations showed that the experimentally observed superstructure occurs due to crystal distortions involving unequal shifts of cations along the pseudo-cubic [111] direction. This result helped to clarify the discrepancies in magnetic and structural order reported for BFCO. It was also established that the observation of the XRD SPs alone may not be sufficient proof of chemical ordering in DPs. Consequently a very weak magnetization of 0.06 µB/f.u. was achieved for BFCO. The key findings from BFCO paved way for further work on 3d-5d family of DPs which, owing to larger possible B/B’ cation size/charge contrasts, offer better prospect of achieving structural and magnetic order. However 3d-5d compounds for insulating magnetism or multiferroic purposes have so far been neglected due to rarity of insulating phases among them as well as complicated synthesis involved. Using density functional calculations, new ferrimagnetic insulating phases were identified in two promising DPs La2MnReO6 (LMRO) and La2NiReO6 (LNRO). Motivated by the findings, stoichiometric ceramic pellets for PLD growth of LMRO and LNRO were fabricated via an evacuated sealed quartz tube sintering process. Subsequently, established PLD procedures were used to epitaxially stabilize phase pure films of LMRO and LNRO on single crystalline STO substrates. In contrast to BFCO, both 3d-5d compounds showed a theoretically consistent and significant magnetization of 2.20 (LMRO) and 0.38 (LNRO) µB/f.u. suggesting presence of a stable magnetic and chemical order. A cross-sectional atomic resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed the B/B’ chemical order in LMRO. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements showed consistent observation in accordance with the ferrimagnetic order and also provided evidence of an unquenched orbital moment. Furthermore, a metal to insulator transition observed in LMRO added to the functional qualities of the compound. This transition was noted to result from an orbital symmetry selective hybridization of 3d and 5d orbitals and the same was confirmed by dynamic mean field theory calculations. The results illustrate the untapped potential of double perovskites as functional oxides and the effectiveness of the PLD based thin film approach to realize them. |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-62838 | ||||
Classification DDC: | 500 Science and mathematics > 500 Science 500 Science and mathematics > 530 Physics 500 Science and mathematics > 540 Chemistry 600 Technology, medicine, applied sciences > 620 Engineering and machine engineering |
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Divisions: | 11 Department of Materials and Earth Sciences > Material Science 11 Department of Materials and Earth Sciences > Material Science > Advanced Thin Film Technology |
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Date Deposited: | 12 Jun 2017 06:59 | ||||
Last Modified: | 09 Jul 2020 01:39 | ||||
URI: | https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/6283 | ||||
PPN: | 404368115 | ||||
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