Novel multiferroicity in GdMnO3 thin films with self-assembled nano-twinned domains

• DOI: 10.1038/srep07019
• Publication Date: 2014-11-12T10:06:36Z
• Authors: Xiang Li; Chengliang Lu; Jiyan Dai; Shuai Dong; Yan Chen; Ni Hu; Guangheng Wu; Meifeng Liu; Zhibo Yan; Jun-Ming Liu
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology; Article

There have been many interests in exploring multiferroic materials with superior ferroelectric and magnetic properties for the purpose of developing multifunctional devices. Fabrication thin films plays an important role achieving this purpose, since multiferroicity can be tuned via strain, dimensionality size effect, without varying chemical composition. Here, we report exotic behaviors, including high-TC (~75 K) state, a large spontaneous polarization (~4900 μC/m2) relatively strong ferromagnetism emerging at ~105 K, orthorhombic GdMnO3/SrTiO3 (001) self-assembled nano-scale twin-like domains. We propose possible ab-plane spiral-spin-order phase to responsible films, which only stabilized by high field H > 6 T bulk crystals. It is suggested that domain structure essential temperature ferroelectricity films.