Epitaxial integration of ferromagnetic correlated oxide LaCoO3 with Si (100)

We have grown epitaxial strained LaCoO3 on (100)-oriented silicon by molecular beam epitaxy using a relaxed epitaxial SrTiO3 buffer layer. Superconducting quantum interference device magnetization measurements show that, unlike the bulk material, the ground state of the strained LaCoO3 on silicon is ferromagnetic with a T-C of 85 K. First principles calculations suggest that a ferromagnetic ground state can be stabilized in LaCoO3 by a sufficiently large biaxial tensile strain with the transition accompanied by a partial untilting of the CoO6 octahedra. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3549301]