capping layer

Oxide heterostructures have has a high potential for spintronics applications due to their well-defined heterointerfaces and vast functionalities. Understanding and utilizing the advantages of oxide spintronics requires effective control of magnetism, such as engineering coercivity (H_C). SrRuO₃ (SRO) is an itinerant ferromagnet with high tunable electron-electron correlation and spin-orbit coupling. It could be a good candidate for exploring spintronics applications due to the recently discovered exotic topological properties. [1, 2]

Here, we reported our recent result on controlling H_C of SRO ultrathin film by a SrTiO₃ (STO) capping layer. The film was deposited by pulsed laser deposition. By controlling the thickness and growth oxygen partial pressure of STO capping layer, we can tune the H_C of SRO films by an amplitude over 100%. Such an effective modulation of H_C is highly related to the oxygen vacancies transferred from STO capping layer to SRO film.

[1] J. Matsuno et al., Sci. Adv. (2016)
[2] L. Wang et al., Nat. Mat. (2018)