Observation of Exchange Anisotropy in Single-Phase Layer-Structured Oxides with Long Periods

Yan Huang; Guopeng Wang; Shujie Sun; Jianlin Wang; Ranran Peng; Yue Lin; Xiaofang Zhai; Zhengping Fu; Yalin Lu

doi:10.1038/srep15261

Observation of Exchange Anisotropy in Single-Phase Layer-Structured Oxides with Long Periods

Sci Rep. 2015 Oct 21:5:15261. doi: 10.1038/srep15261.

Authors

Yan Huang¹, Guopeng Wang¹, Shujie Sun¹, Jianlin Wang², Ranran Peng^{1

3

4}, Yue Lin³, Xiaofang Zhai³, Zhengping Fu^{1

3

4

2}, Yalin Lu^{1

3

4

2

5}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
² National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
³ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
⁴ Synergy Innovation Center of Quantum Information &Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
⁵ Laser Optics Research Center, US Air force Academy, Colorado 80840, USA.

Abstract

A remarkable exchange bias effect arising from the temperature-dependent interaction among the ferromagnetic-like cluster glasses and antiferromagnetic regions was observed in a newly developed single-phase multiferroic compound of Bi10Fe6Ti3O30 which has a nine-layer Aurivillius structure. Inhomogeneous distribution of magnetic Fe ions inside this long-period layered structure was experimentally identified via the atomic level imaging. The results confirmed the presence of the short-range magnetic ordering (the cluster glassy state) and the canted antiferromagnetism, and then the direct interaction among them was further confirmed. Finding of this new single-phase material accompanying this remarkable exchange bias effect would be beneficial to both basic physics understanding and the potential device development.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.