Magneto-optical properties of textured La${}_{2/3}$Sr${}_{1/3}$MnO${}_3$ thin films integrated on silicon via a Ca${}_2$Nb${}_3$O${}_{10}$ nanosheet layer

Abstract

We demonstrate the possibility of growing textured La${}_{2/3}$Sr${}_{1/3}$MnO${}_3$ (LSMO) thin films on silicon substrates with magneto-optical and optical properties comparable to high-quality epitaxial layers grown on bulk SrTiO${}_3$ (STO). The pulsed laser deposition growth of LSMO is achieved by a two-dimensional nanosheet (NS) seed layer of Ca${}_2$Nb${}_3$O${}_{10}$ (CNO) inducing epitaxial stabilization of LSMO films. The resulting layers possess a higher Curie temperature and a lower overall magnetization than samples of LSMO on STO. Spectra of the full permittivity tensor were calculated from optical and magneto-optical measurements. Spectral dependencies of both the diagonal and off-diagonal elements share many similarities between the LSMO/NS/Si and LSMO/STO samples. These similarities indicate comparable electronic structures of the layers and demonstrate comparable optical quality of textured LSMO on NS/Si and epitaxial LSMO on STO.