Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in conducting NiCo₂O₄ films from spin-lattice coupling

Authors

Corbyn Mellinger, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jace Waybright, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, South Dakota State University
Xiaozhe Zhang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Xi’an Polytechnic University
Caleb Schmidt, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Xiaoshan S. Xu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

1-10-2020

Citation

MELLINGER, WAYBRIGHT, ZHANG, SCHMIDT, AND XU PHYSICAL REVIEW B 101, 014413 (2020). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.101.014413

Comments

Used by permission

Abstract

High perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), a property needed for nanoscale spintronic applications, is rare in oxide conductors. We report the observation of a PMA up to 0.23 MJ/m³ in modestly strained (–0.3%) epitaxial NiCo₂O₄ films which are room-temperature ferrimagnetic conductors. Spin-lattice coupling manifested as magnetoelastic effect was found as the origin of the PMA. The in-plane x²-y² states of Co on tetrahedral sites play crucial role in the magnetic anisotropy and spin-lattice coupling with an energy scale of 1 meV/f.u. The elucidation of the microscopic origin paves a way for engineering oxide conductors for PMA using metal/oxygen hybridizations.