Antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling and thus induced distinct spin texture for the [LaMnO3/LaCoO3]5 superlattices

Abstract

Artificial engineering of an interfacial spin structure of complex oxides with strongly coupled spin, orbital, charge and lattice degrees of freedom is crucially important for the exploration of novel effects associated with magnetic tunneling, exchange biasing, and spin injecting/manipulating, which are the central issues of spintronics. Here we demonstrate the presence of a distinct interlayer coupling between LaMnO₃ (LMO) and LaCoO₃ (LCO) and the resulting dramatic effect on the spin structure. We found that the LCO layer in (LMO/LCO)₅ superlattices exhibits not only an antiferromagnetic coupling with a neighboring LMO layer but also a long-range magnetic order with substantially reduced magnetization. As suggested by density functional theory calculations, interlayer coupling can induce a spatial oscillation of magnetic moment within the LCO layer, resulting in low magnetization.