We studied the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties of compressive strained and unstrained BiMnO3 thin films grown by rf-magnetron sputtering. BiMnO3 samples exhibit a two-dimensional cube-on-cube growth mode and a pseudo-cubic structure up to a thickness of 15 nm and of 25 nm when deposited on (001) SrTiO3 and (110) DyScO3, respectively. Above these thicknesses, we observe a switching to a three-dimensional island growth mode and a simultaneous structural change to a (00l) oriented monoclinic unit cell. While ferromagnetism is observed below a TC ? 100 K for all samples, signatures of room temperature ferroelectricity were found only in the pseudo-cubic ultra-thin films, indicating a correlation between electronic and structural orders. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.
Ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in epitaxial BiMnO3 ultra-thin films
De Luca;Chiarella;Fa;Di Capua;Lettieri;Sa;Salluzzo;Ma
2013
Abstract
We studied the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties of compressive strained and unstrained BiMnO3 thin films grown by rf-magnetron sputtering. BiMnO3 samples exhibit a two-dimensional cube-on-cube growth mode and a pseudo-cubic structure up to a thickness of 15 nm and of 25 nm when deposited on (001) SrTiO3 and (110) DyScO3, respectively. Above these thicknesses, we observe a switching to a three-dimensional island growth mode and a simultaneous structural change to a (00l) oriented monoclinic unit cell. While ferromagnetism is observed below a TC ? 100 K for all samples, signatures of room temperature ferroelectricity were found only in the pseudo-cubic ultra-thin films, indicating a correlation between electronic and structural orders. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.