Speaker
Description
La$_2$NiMnO$_6$ (LNMO) is an insulating double perovskite oxide with ferromagnetic Curie temperature around 280K driven by the oxygen-mediated super exchange interaction between long-range ordered Ni$^{2+}$ and Mn$^{4+}$ ions. An insulating ferromagnet would be ideal for novel spintronic devices but only a few attempts of growing ultrathin films have been reported.
Here we show that the epitaxial growth of LNMO ultrathin films can be accomplished with off-axis RF magnetron sputtering. Structural characterization illustrates the preparation of films with high crystalline quality and minimal degree of antisite disorder. SQUID magnetometry and synchrotron XMCD indicate that the ferromagnetic character of the film is retained at least down to 2nm. This is one important step towards the implementation of LNMO films in multilayer geometries.
