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Research Article

The exceedingly strong two-dimensional ferromagnetism in bi-atomic layer SrRuO3 with a critical conduction transition

Jingxian Zhang1,§, Long Cheng2,§( ), Hui Cao3,§, Mingrui Bao2, Jiyin Zhao4, Xuguang Liu4, Aidi Zhao2, Yongseong Choi5, Hua Zhou5, Padraic Shafer6, Xiaofang Zhai2( )
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China
Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA
Instrument Center for Physical Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
X-ray Science Division, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA
Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

§ Jingxian Zhang, Long Cheng, and Hui Cao contributed equally to this work.

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Graphical Abstract

The exceedingly strong two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetism among the correlated oxides family is revealed in bi-atomic layer SrRuO3 with an identical conduction transition behavior from non-Fermi liquid to weak localization.

Abstract

In recent years, few-layer or even monolayer ferromagnetic materials have drawn a great deal of attention due to the promising integration of two-dimensional (2D) magnets into next-generation spintronic devices. The SrRuO3 monolayer is a rare example of stable 2D magnetism under ambient conditions, but only weak ferromagnetism or antiferromagnetism has been found. The bi-atomic layer SrRuO3 as another environmentally inert 2D magnetic system has been paid less attention heretofore. Here we study both the bi-atomic layer and monolayer SrRuO3 in (SrRuO3)n/(SrTiO3)m (n = 1, 2) superlattices in which the SrTiO3 serves as a non-magnetic and insulating space layer. Although the monolayer exhibits arguably weak ferromagnetism, we find that the bi-atomic layer exhibits exceedingly strong ferromagnetism with a Tc of 125 K and a saturation magnetization of 1.2 µB/Ru, demonstrated by both superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry and element-specific X-ray circular dichroism. Moreover, in the bi-atomic layer SrRuO3, we demonstrate that random fluctuations and orbital reconstructions inevitably occurring in the 2D limit are critical to the electrical transport, but are much less critical to the ferromagnetism. Our study demonstrates that the bi-atomic layer SrRuO3 is an exceedingly strong 2D ferromagnetic oxide which has great potentials for applications of ultracompact spintronic devices.

Keywords

two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetismcorrelated oxidesSrRuO3non-Fermi liquidweak localization

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Nano Research
Volume 15 Issue 8,
August 2022
Pages 7584-7589
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-022-4392-5
Cite this article:
Zhang J, Cheng L, Cao H, et al. The exceedingly strong two-dimensional ferromagnetism in bi-atomic layer SrRuO3 with a critical conduction transition. Nano Research, 2022, 15(8): 7584-7589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4392-5
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Ferromagnetic materials

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Received: 21 January 2022
Revised: 21 March 2022
Accepted: 05 April 2022
Published: 08 June 2022
© Tsinghua University Press 2022
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