TY - JOUR
T1 - Ionically driven synthesis and exchange bias in Mn4N/MnNx heterostructures
AU - Chen, Zhijie
AU - Jensen, Christopher J.
AU - Liu, Chen
AU - Zhang, Xixiang
AU - Liu, Kai
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2023-09-12
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): OSR-2019-CRG8-4081
Acknowledgements: This work has been supported in part by the NSF (Nos. DMR-2005108 and ECCS-2151809), SMART (No. 2018-NE-2861), one of seven centers of nCORE, a Semiconductor Research Corporation program, sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and by KAUST (No. OSR-2019-CRG8-4081). The acquisition of a Magnetic Property Measurements System (MPMS3), which was used in this investigation, was supported by the NSF-MRI program (No. DMR-1828420).
PY - 2023/8/22
Y1 - 2023/8/22
N2 - Ferrimagnets have received renewed attention as a promising platform for spintronic applications. Of particular interest is the Mn4N from the ϵ-phase of the manganese nitride as an emergent rare-earth-free spintronic material due to its perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, small saturation magnetization, high thermal stability, and large domain wall velocity. We have achieved high-quality (001)-ordered Mn4N thin film by sputtering Mn onto η-phase Mn3N2 seed layers on Si substrates. As the deposited Mn thickness varies, nitrogen ion migration across the Mn3N2/Mn layers leads to a continuous evolution of the layers to Mn3N2/Mn2N/Mn4N, Mn2N/Mn4N, and eventually Mn4N alone. The ferrimagnetic Mn4N, indeed, exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and forms via a nucleation-and-growth mechanism. The nitrogen ion migration is also manifested in a significant exchange bias, up to 0.3 T at 5 K, due to the interactions between ferrimagnetic Mn4N and antiferromagnetic Mn3N2 and Mn2N. These results demonstrate a promising all-nitride magneto-ionic platform with remarkable tunability for device applications.
AB - Ferrimagnets have received renewed attention as a promising platform for spintronic applications. Of particular interest is the Mn4N from the ϵ-phase of the manganese nitride as an emergent rare-earth-free spintronic material due to its perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, small saturation magnetization, high thermal stability, and large domain wall velocity. We have achieved high-quality (001)-ordered Mn4N thin film by sputtering Mn onto η-phase Mn3N2 seed layers on Si substrates. As the deposited Mn thickness varies, nitrogen ion migration across the Mn3N2/Mn layers leads to a continuous evolution of the layers to Mn3N2/Mn2N/Mn4N, Mn2N/Mn4N, and eventually Mn4N alone. The ferrimagnetic Mn4N, indeed, exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and forms via a nucleation-and-growth mechanism. The nitrogen ion migration is also manifested in a significant exchange bias, up to 0.3 T at 5 K, due to the interactions between ferrimagnetic Mn4N and antiferromagnetic Mn3N2 and Mn2N. These results demonstrate a promising all-nitride magneto-ionic platform with remarkable tunability for device applications.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/693524
UR - https://pubs.aip.org/apl/article/123/8/082403/2907749/Ionically-driven-synthesis-and-exchange-bias-in
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85169795092&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1063/5.0165895
DO - 10.1063/5.0165895
M3 - Article
SN - 0003-6951
VL - 123
JO - Applied Physics Letters
JF - Applied Physics Letters
IS - 8
ER -