Flexomagnetoelectric effect in Sr2IrO4 thin films

Abstract

Symmetry engineering is explicitly effective to manipulate and even create phases and orderings in strongly correlated materials. Flexural stress is universally practical to break the space-inversion or time-reversal symmetry. Here, by introducing strain gradient in a centrosymmetric antiferromagnet Sr2IrO4, the space-inversion symmetry is broken accompanying a non-equivalent O p-Ir d orbital hybridization along z axis. Thus, emergent polar phase and out-of-plane magnetic moment have been simultaneously observed in these asymmetric Sr2IrO4 thin films, which both are absent in its ground state. Furthermore, upon the application of magnetic field, such polarization can be controlled by modifying the occupied d orbitals through spin-orbit interaction, giving rise to a flexomagnetoelectric effect. This work provides a general strategy to artificially design multiple symmetries and ferroic orderings in strongly correlated systems.

References in corpus (22)

• Novel Jeff = 1/2 Mott State Induced by Relativistic Spin-Orbit Coupling in Sr2IrO4
• Strain gradient induced polarization in SrTiO3 single crystals
• Giant Flexoelectric Effect in Ferroelectric Epitaxial Thin Films
• Metal-insulator transition in ultrathin LaNiO3 films
• Spin-polarization coupling in multiferroic transition-metal oxides
• Strain Gradients in Epitaxial Ferroelectrics
• Breaking of macroscopic centric symmetry in paraelectric phases of ferroelectric materials and implications for flexoelectricity
• The magnetic and crystal structures of Sr2IrO4: A neutron diffraction study
• Bond electronic polarization induced by spin
• Evidence of an odd-parity hidden order in a spin-orbit coupled correlated iridate
• Towards a bulk theory of flexoelectricity
• Testing the validity of the strong spin-orbit-coupling limit for octahedrally coordinated iridates in a model system Sr${}_3$CuIrO${}_6$
• Mixing of $t_{2g}$-$e_g$ orbitals in 4d and 5d transition metal oxides
• Linear magnetoelectric coupling and ferroelectricity induced by the flexomagnetic effect in ferroics
• Curved Magnetism in CrI${}_3$
• Epitaxy-distorted spin-orbit Mott insulator in Sr2IrO4 thin films
• Charge transfer in iridate-manganite superlattices
• Revealing Controllable Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Spin Orbit Coupled Antiferromagnet Sr2IrO4
• Perspective: Strongly correlated and topological states in [111] grown transition metal oxide thin films and heterostructures
• Model analysis of magnetic susceptibility of Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$ - 2D $J_{\mathrm{eff}}$ = 1/2 Heisenberg system with competing interlayer couplings
• Insight into the magnetic behavior of Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$:A spontaneous magnetization study
• Precise control of $J_{\mathrm{eff}}=1/2$ magnetic properties in Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$ epitaxial thin films by variation of strain and thin film thickness

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Reconfigurable Strain Gradient Polarity in Crystalline Oxide Nanomembranes for Controlled Bending of Functional Materials
• Emerging axion detection in artificial magnetoelectric materials