Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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DF: Fachverband Dielektrische Festkörper

DF 18: Multiferroics (DF and MA)

DF 18.5: Talk

Thursday, March 23, 2017, 16:15–16:30, WIL B321

Magneto-optic and electro-optic effects in multiferroic thin films — •Simon Wisotzki, Liane Brandt, Diana Rata, and Georg Woltersdorf — Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Physics, Von-Danckelmann-Platz 3, 06120 Halle (Saale)

Jia et al. [1] proposed a magneto-electric coupling effect for ferromagnetic (FM)/ferroelectric(FE) composites. This phenomenon is purely charge-mediated and accompanied by the build-up of an interfacial spiral spin density. Depending on the FE polarization state in a FM/FE composite, the surface spiral spin density induced in the FM layer should change direction. For a suitable sample geometry, one can expect the reversal of the out-of-plane component of the magnetization at the FM/FE interface, with this effect decaying across the spin diffusion length. We utilize a setup that is sensitive to minute changes (<10^-6 rad) of the polarization state of reflected light from the multiferroic composite. In our experiments, magneto-optic effects (reflection on FM surface) as well as electro-optic effects (caused by the FE layer) may contribute to the measured change of the polarization state upon reflection. In a series of experiments on thin film multiferroic capacitors consisting of FM/FE/FM, we try to distinguish between the two effects and identify a possible magneto-electric contribution as suggested in [1]. The investigated samples include epitaxial LSMO/PZT/LSMO and LSMO/PZT structures with polycrystalline FM top electrodes.

C.-L. Jia et al., Phys. Rev. B 90, 054423 (2014)