Thickness-dependent electronic structure modulation of ferromagnetic films on shape memory alloy substrates based on a pure strain effect

Pure strain-induced electronic structure modulation in ferromagnetic films is critical for developing reliable strain-assisted spintronic devices with low power consumption. For the conventional electricity-controlled strain engineering, it is difficult to reveal the pure strain effect on electronic...

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Veröffentlicht in:Applied physics letters 2016-11, Vol.109 (21)
Hauptverfasser: Feng, Chun, Hu, Di, Gong, Kui, Jiang, Xumin, Yin, Jianjuan, Cao, Yi, Tang, Xiao-Lei, Yang, Feng, Zhou, Zhongfu, Yu, Guanghua, Andrew Evans, D.
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Pure strain-induced electronic structure modulation in ferromagnetic films is critical for developing reliable strain-assisted spintronic devices with low power consumption. For the conventional electricity-controlled strain engineering, it is difficult to reveal the pure strain effect on electronic structure tunability due to the inseparability of pure strain effect and surface charge effect. Here, a non-electrically controlled NiTi shape memory alloy was utilized as a strain output substrate to induce a pure strain on attached Fe films through a thermally controlled shape memory effect. The pure strain induced electronic structure evolution was revealed by in-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and correlated with first-principles calculations and magnetic anisotropy measurements. A compressive strain enhances the shielding effect for core electrons and significantly tunes their binding energy. Meanwhile, the strain modifies the partial density of states of outer d orbits, which may affect spin-orbit coupling strength and related magnetic anisotropy. This work helps for clarifying the physical nature of the pure strain effect and developing the pure-strain-assisted spintronic devices.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4967996