Spintronic oxides grown by laser-MBE

TL;DR

This paper reviews the growth of transition-metal oxide thin films by laser-MBE, highlighting their physical properties and potential spintronic applications, including ferromagnetic oxides, zinc oxide doping, and multiferroics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of laser-MBE growth techniques and recent advances in oxide thin films relevant to spintronics.

Findings

High-quality epitaxial oxide films have been achieved using laser-MBE.

Doped manganites and double perovskites show promise for magnetic tunnel junctions.

Recent developments in oxide multiferroics enable new multifunctional device applications.

Abstract

The recent study of oxides led to the discovery of several new fascinating physical phenomena. High-temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, dilute magnetic doping, or multiferroicity were discovered and investigated in transition-metal oxides, representing a prototype class of strongly correlated electronic systems. This development was accompanied by an enormous progress regarding thin film fabrication. Within the past two decades, epitaxial thin films with crystalline quality approaching semiconductor standards became available using laser molecular beam epitaxy. This evolution is reviewed, particularly with emphasis on transition-metal oxide thin films, their versatile physical properties, and their impact on the field of spintronics. First, the physics of ferromagnetic half-metallic oxides, such as the doped manganites, the double perovskites and magnetite is presented together with possible applications based on magnetic tunnel junctions. Second, the wide bandgap semiconductor zinc oxide is discussed particularly with regard to the controversy of dilute magnetic doping with transition-metal ions and the possibility of realizing p-type conductivity. Third, the field of oxide multiferroics is presented with the recent developments in single-phase multiferroic thin film perovskites as well as in composite multiferroic hybrids.