Exchange biasing and electric polarization with YMnO3

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the growth of epitaxial YMnO3 thin films exhibiting multiferroic properties, including ferroelectricity and exchange bias, highlighting their potential for novel multifunctional devices.

Contribution

It reports the successful fabrication and characterization of epitaxial YMnO3 films showing coexistence of ferroelectricity and antiferromagnetism with exchange bias effects.

Findings

Epitaxial YMnO3 films exhibit ferroelectric domains.

Exchange bias observed with Permalloy layer at low temperature.

Coexistence of antiferromagnetism and electrical polarization confirmed.

Abstract

We report on the growth and functional characterization of epitaxial thin films of the multiferroic YMnO3. We show that using Pt as a seed layer on SrTiO3(111) substrates, epitaxial YMnO3 films (0001) textured are obtained. An atomic force microscope has been used to polarize electric domains revealing the ferroelectric nature of the film. When a Permalloy layer is grown on top of the YMnO3(0001) film, clear indications of exchange bias and enhanced coercivity are observed at low temperature. The observation of coexisting antiferromagnetism and electrical polarization suggests that the biferroic character of YMnO3 can be exploited in novel devices.