Giant piezomagnetism in Mn3NiN

Boldrin, D. et al. (2018) Giant piezomagnetism in Mn3NiN. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 10(22), pp. 18863-18868. (doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b03112)

Abstract

Controlling magnetism with electric field directly or through strain-driven piezoelectric coupling remains a key goal of spintronics. Here, we demonstrate that giant piezomagnetism, a linear magneto-mechanic coupling effect, is manifest in antiperovskite Mn3NiN, facilitated by its geometrically frustrated antiferromagnetism opening the possibility of new memory device concepts. Films of Mn3NiN with intrinsic biaxial strains of ±0.25% result in Néel transition shifts up to 60 K and magnetization changes consistent with theory. Films grown on BaTiO3 display a striking magnetization jump in response to uniaxial strain from the intrinsic BaTiO3 structural transition, with an inferred 44% strain coupling efficiency and a magnetoelectric coefficient α (where α = dB/dE) of 0.018 G cm/V. The latter agrees with the 1000-fold increase over Cr2O3 predicted by theory. Overall, our observations pave the way for further research into the broader family of Mn-based antiperovskites where yet larger piezomagnetic effects are predicted to occur at room temperature.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Boldrin, Dr David
• Authors: Boldrin, D., Mihai, A. P., Zou, B., Zemen, J., Thompson, R., Ware, E., Neamtu, B. V., Ghivelder, L., Esser, B., McComb, D. W., Petrov, P., and Cohen, L. F.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• ISSN: 1944-8244
• ISSN (Online): 1944-8252
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society
• First Published: First published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 10(22):18863–18868
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy