Browsing by Author "Cheung, J"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Direct evidence for the spin cycloid in strained nanoscale bismuth ferrite thin films
    (Australian Institute of Physics, 2017-01-31) Bertinshaw, J; Maran, R; Callori, SJ; Ramesh, V; Cheung, J; Dainlkin, SA; Lee, WT; Hu, S; Seidel, J; Valanoor, N; Ulrich, C
    Multiferroic materials demonstrate excellent potential for next-generation multifunctional devices, as they exhibit coexisting ferroelectric and magnetic orders. Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is a rare exemption where both order parameters exist far beyond room temperature, making it the ideal candidate for technological applications. In particular, magnonic devices that utilize electric control of spin waves mediated by complex spin textures are an emerging direction in spintronics research. To realize magnonic devices, a robust long-range spin cycloid with well known direction is desired, since it is a prerequisite for the magnetoelectric coupling. Despite extensive investigation, the stabilization of a large-scale uniform spin cycloid in nanoscale (100 nm) thin BiFeO3 films has not been accomplished. Here, we demonstrate cycloidal spin order in 100 nm BiFeO3 thin films through the careful choice of crystallographic orientation, and control of the electrostatic and strain boundary conditions during growth [1]. Neutron diffraction, in conjunction with X-ray diffraction, reveals an incommensurate spin cycloid with a unique [112] propagation direction. While this direction is different from bulk BiFeO3, the cycloid length and Néel temperature remain equivalent to bulk single crystals. The discovery of a large scale uniform cycloid in thin film BiFeO3 opens new avenues for fundamental research and technical applications that exploit the spin cycloid in spintronic or magnonic devices.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Polarised neutron diffraction study of the spin cycloid in strained nanoscale bismuth ferrite thin films
    (Australian Institute of Physics, 2017-01-31) Lee, WT; Bertinshaw, J; Maran, R; Callori, SJ; Ramesh, V; Cheung, J; Danilkin, SA; Hu, S; Seidel, J; Valanoor, N; Ulrich, C
    Polarised neutron scattering is capable of separating magnetic structure from chemical structure. Here we report an experiment using the newly available capability at ANSTO, namely polarised neutron diffraction using polarised 3He neutron spin-filters to obtain the detail magnetic structure in even highly complex magnetic materials. Magnonic devices that utilize electric control of spin waves mediated by complex spin textures are an emerging direction in spintronics research. Room-temperature multiferroic materials, such as BiFeO3, with a spin cycloidal structure would be ideal candidates for this purpose. In order to realise magnonic devices, a robust long-range spin cycloid with well-known direction is desired. Despite extensive investigation, the stabilization of a large scale uniform spin cycloid in nanoscale (100 nm) thin BiFeO3 films has not been accomplished. The polarized neutron diffraction experiment did confirm the existence of the spin cycloid in this BiFeO3 film, which is an important prerequisite for the multiferroic coupling.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Stability and scaling behavior of the spin cycloid in BiFeO3 thin films
    (Australian Institute of Physics, 2018-01-30) Burns, SR; Sando, D; Bertinshaw, J; Russell, L; Xu, X; Maran, R; Callori, SJ; Ramash, V; Cheung, J; Danilkin, SA; Deng, G; Lee, WT; Hu, S; Bellaiche, L; Seidel, J; Valanoor, N; Ulrich, C
    Multiferroic materials demonstrate excellent potential for next-generation multifunctional devices, as they exhibit coexisting ferroelectric and magnetic orders. Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is a rare exemption where both order parameters exist far beyond room temperature, making it the ideal candidate for technological applications. To realize magnonic devices, a robust longrange spin cycloid with well-known direction is desired, since it is a prerequisite for the magnetoelectric coupling. Despite extensive investigation, the stabilization of a large-scale uniform spin cycloid in nanoscale (<300 nm) thin BiFeO3 films has not been accomplished. Using neutron diffraction we were able to demonstrate cycloidal spin order in 100 nm BiFeO3 thin films which became stable through the careful choice of crystallographic orientation and control of the electrostatic and strain boundary conditions during growth [1]. Furthermore, Co-doping, which has demonstrated to further stabilize the spin cycloid, did allow us to obtain spin cycloid order in films of just 50 nm thickness, i.e. films thinner than the cycloidal length of about 64 nm. Interestingly, in thin films the propagation direction of the spin cycloid has changed and shows a peculiar scaling behavior for thinnest films. We were able to support these observations by Monte Carlo theory based on a first-principles effective Hamiltonian method. Our results therefore offer new avenues for fundamental research and technical applications that exploit the spin cycloid in spintronic or magnonic devices.