skip to main content


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Rzchowski, Mark S."

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Fe-based superconductors exhibit a diverse interplay between charge, orbital, and magnetic ordering. Variations in atomic geometry affect electron hopping between Fe atoms and the Fermi surface topology, influencing magnetic frustration and the pairing strength through changes of orbital overlap and occupancies. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a systematic approach to realize superconductivity without chemical doping in BaFe2As2, employing geometric design within an epitaxial heterostructure. We control both tetragonality and orthorhombicity in BaFe2As2through superlattice engineering, which we experimentally find to induce superconductivity when the As−Fe−As bond angle approaches that in a regular tetrahedron. This approach to superlattice design could lead to insights into low-dimensional superconductivity in Fe-based superconductors.

     
    more » « less
  2. Abstract

    Spin–orbit torques generated by a spin current are key to magnetic switching in spintronic applications. The polarization of the spin current dictates the direction of switching required for energy‐efficient devices. Conventionally, the polarizations of these spin currents are restricted to be along a certain direction due to the symmetry of the material allowing only for efficient in‐plane magnetic switching. Unconventional spin–orbit torques arising from novel spin current polarizations, however, have the potential to switch other magnetization orientations such as perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, which is desired for higher density spintronic‐based memory devices. Here, it is demonstrated that low crystalline symmetry is not required for unconventional spin–orbit torques and can be generated in a nonmagnetic high symmetry material, iridium dioxide (IrO2), using epitaxial design. It is shown that by reducing the relative crystalline symmetry with respect to the growth direction large unconventional spin currents can be generated and hence spin–orbit torques. Furthermore, the spin polarizations detected in (001), (110), and (111) oriented IrO2thin films are compared to show which crystal symmetries restrict unconventional spin transport. Understanding and tuning unconventional spin transport generation in high symmetry materials can provide a new route towards energy‐efficient magnetic switching in spintronic devices.

     
    more » « less
  3. Abstract

    The prospect of 2‐dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) possessing high mobility at room temperature in wide‐bandgap perovskite stannates is enticing for oxide electronics, particularly to realize transparent and high‐electron mobility transistors. Nonetheless only a small number of studies to date report 2DEGs in BaSnO3‐based heterostructures. Here, 2DEG formation at the LaScO3/BaSnO3(LSO/BSO) interface with a room‐temperature mobility of 60 cm2 V−1 s−1at a carrier concentration of 1.7 × 1013 cm–2is reported. This is an order of magnitude higher mobility at room temperature than achieved in SrTiO3‐based 2DEGs. This is achieved by combining a thick BSO buffer layer with an ex situ high‐temperature treatment, which not only reduces the dislocation density but also produces a SnO2‐terminated atomically flat surface, followed by the growth of an overlying BSO/LSO interface. Using weak beam dark‐field transmission electron microscopy imaging and in‐line electron holography technique, a reduction of the threading dislocation density is revealed, and direct evidence for the spatial confinement of a 2DEG at the BSO/LSO interface is provided. This work opens a new pathway to explore the exciting physics of stannate‐based 2DEGs at application‐relevant temperatures for oxide nanoelectronics.

     
    more » « less
  4. Abstract

    The discovery of superconductivity in twisted graphene bilayers with a magic twisting angle ≈1.1° has opened up a wide range of potential twistronic device possibilities. In this work, the twisting effects in spintronic devices are explored. In particular, a material prototype integrating spintronics, straintronics, and twistronics is developed by stacking a twisted CoFe2O4(CFO) bilayer membrane on a Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3‐PbTiO3(PMN‐PT) membrane. Phase‐field simulations are performed to study the magnetic domain configurations and switching in CFO bilayers under piezostrains. An emerging interlayer parallel‐to‐antiparallel magnetic transition of the twisted CFO bilayer induced by appropriate piezostrain pulses generated from the PMN‐PT membrane is discovered. Such a strain‐induced parallel‐to‐antiparallel magnetic transition is non‐volatile and reversible, arising from the synergistic interaction among spin, strain, and twisting order parameters. The present work provides a paradigm for designing novel spinotropic devices by taking advantage of the emerging phenomena generated by twisting.

     
    more » « less