J W Freeland et al 2007 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 19 315210 doi:10.1088/0953-8984/19/31/315210
J W Freeland1, J J Kavich1,2, K E Gray3, L Ozyuzer3, H Zheng3, J F Mitchell3, M P Warusawithana4, P Ryan2, X Zhai4, R H Kodama2 and J N Eckstein4
Show affiliationsWhat happens to ferromagnetism at the surfaces and interfaces of manganites? With the competition between charge, spin, and orbital degrees of freedom, it is not surprising that the surface behaviour may be profoundly different to that of the bulk. Using a powerful combination of two surface probes, tunnelling and polarized x-ray interactions, this paper reviews our work on the nature of the electronic and magnetic states at manganite surfaces and interfaces. The general observation is that ferromagnetism is not the lowest energy state at the surface or interface, which results in a suppression or even loss of ferromagnetic order at the surface. Two cases will be discussed ranging from the surface of the quasi-2D bilayer manganite (La2−2xSr1+2xMn2O7) to the 3D perovskite (La2/3Sr1/3MnO3)/SrTiO3 interface. For the bilayer manganite, which is ferromagnetic and conducting in the bulk, these probes present clear evidence for an intrinsic insulating non-ferromagnetic surface layer atop adjacent subsurface layers that display the full bulk magnetization. This abrupt intrinsic magnetic interface is attributed to the weak inter-bilayer coupling native to these quasi-two-dimensional materials. This is in marked contrast to the situation for the non-layered manganite system (La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/SrTiO3), whose magnetization near the interface is less than half the bulk value at low temperatures and decreases with increasing temperature at a faster rate than that for the bulk.
75.70.Cn Magnetic properties of interfaces (multilayers, superlattices, heterostructures)
75.50.Cc Other ferromagnetic metals and alloys
75.60.Ej Magnetization curves, hysteresis, Barkhausen and related effects
Issue 31 (8 August 2007)
Received 3 November 2006, in final form 29 December 2006
Published 3 July 2007
J W Freeland et al 2007 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 19 315210
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