Structural, magnetic and electrical properties of ferromagnetic/ferroelectric multilayers

The La0.75Sr0.25MnO3 (LSMO)/Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 (BSTO) superlattices and bilayers, where LSMO is ferromagnetic and BSTO is ferroelectric, were grown by dc sputtering. X-ray diffraction indicates that the samples present a textured growth with the c axis perpendicular to the substrate. Magnetization measurements show a decrease of the sample's magnetization for decreasing ferromagnetic thickness. This effect could be related to the presence of biaxial strain and a magnetic dead layer in the samples. Conductive atomic force microscopy indicates that the samples present a total covering of the ferromagnetic layer for a ferroelectric thickness higher than four unit cells. Transport tunneling of the carriers seems to be the preferred conduction mechanism through the ferroelectric layer. These are promising results for the development of multiferroic tunnel junctions. (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3598134]