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Abstract Complex oxides offer rich magnetic and electronic behavior intimately tied to the composition and arrangement of cations within the structure. Rare earth iron garnet films exhibit an anisotropy along the growth direction which has long been theorized to originate from the ordering of different cations on the same crystallographic site. Here, we directly demonstrate the three-dimensional ordering of rare earth ions in pulsed laser deposited (Eu_xTm_1-x)₃Fe₅O₁₂garnet thin films using both atomically-resolved elemental mapping to visualize cation ordering and X-ray diffraction to detect the resulting order superlattice reflection. We quantify the resulting ordering-induced ‘magnetotaxial’ anisotropy as a function of Eu:Tm ratio using transport measurements, showing an overwhelmingly dominant contribution from magnetotaxial anisotropy that reaches 30 kJ m⁻³for garnets with x = 0.5. Control of cation ordering on inequivalent sites provides a strategy to control matter on the atomic level and to engineer the magnetic properties of complex oxides. 

Abstract Ferrimagnetic oxide thin films are important material platforms for spintronic devices. Films grown on low symmetry orientations such as (110) exhibit complex anisotropy landscapes that can provide insight into novel phenomena such as spin‐torque auto‐oscillation and spin superfluidity. Using spin‐Hall magnetoresistance measurements, the in‐plane (IP) and out‐of‐plane (OOP) uniaxial anisotropy energies are determined for a thickness series (5–50 nm) of europium iron garnet (EuIG) and thulium iron garnet (TmIG) films epitaxially grown on a gadolinium gallium substrate with (110) orientation and capped with Pt. Pt/EuIG/GGG exhibits an (001) easy plane of magnetization perpendicular to the substrate, whereas Pt/TmIG/GGG exhibits an (001) hard plane of magnetization perpendicular to the substrate with an IP easy axis. Both IP and OOP surface anisotropy energies comparable in magnitude to the bulk anisotropy are observed. The temperature dependence of the surface anisotropies is consistent with first‐order predictions of a simplified Néel surface anisotropy model. By taking advantage of the thickness and temperature dependence demonstrated in these ferrimagnetic oxides grown on the low symmetry (110) orientations, the complex anisotropy landscapes can be tuned to act as a platform to explore rich spin textures and dynamics. 

Abstract Rare‐earth iron garnets (REIG) have recently become the materials platform of choice for spintronic studies on ferrimagnetic insulators. However, thus far the materials studied have mainly been REIG with a single rare earth species such as thulium, yttrium, or terbium iron garnets. In this study, magnetometry, ferromagnetic resonance, and magneto‐optical Kerr effect imaging is used to explore the continuous variation of magnetic properties as a function of composition for Y_xTm_3−xiron garnet (Y_xTm_3−xIG) thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition on gadolinium gallium garnet substrates. It is reported that the tunability of the magnetic anisotropy energy, with full control achieved over the type of anisotropy (from perpendicular, to isotropic, to an in‐plane easy axis) on the same substrate. In addition, a nonmonotonic composition‐dependent anisotropy term is reported, which is ascribed to growth‐induced anisotropy similar to what is reported in garnet thin films grown by liquid‐phase epitaxy. Ferromagnetic resonance shows linear variation of the damping and the g‐factor across the composition range, consistent with prior theoretical work. Domain imaging reveals differences in reversal modes, remanant states, and domain sizes in Y_xTm_3−xiron‐garnet thin films as a function of anisotropy.