A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Interfacial Properties of Organic Semiconductor-Inorganic Magnetic Oxide Hybrid Spintronic Systems Fabricated Using Pulsed Laser Deposition
Authors: Sayani Majumdar, Katarzyna Grochowska, Miroslaw Sawczak, Gerard Śliwiński, Hannu Huhtinen, Johnny Dahl, Marjukka Tuominen, Pekka Laukkanen, Himadri S. Majumdar
Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC
Publication year: 2015
Journal: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Journal name in source: ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Journal acronym: ACS APPL MATER INTER
Volume: 7
Issue: 40
First page : 22228
Last page: 22237
Number of pages: 10
ISSN: 1944-8244
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5b04840
We report fabrication of a hybrid organic semiconductor inorganic complex oxide interface of rubrene and La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) for spintronic devices using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and investigate the interface structure and chemical bonding-dependent magnetic properties. Our results demonstrate that with proper control of growth parameters, thin films of organic semiconductor rubrene can be deposited without any damage to the molecular structure. Rubrene, a widely used organic semiconductor with high charge-carrier mobility and spin diffusion length, when grown as thin films on amorphous and crystalline substrates such as SiO2-glass, indium-tin oxide (ITO), and LSMO by PLD at room temperature and a laser fluence of 0.19 J/cm(2), reveals amorphous structure. The Raman spectra verify the signatures of both A(g) and B-g Raman active modes of rubrene molecules. X-ray reflectivity measurements indicate a well-defined interface formation between surface-treated LSMO and rubrene, whereas X-ray photoelectron spectra indicate the signature of hybridization of the electronic states at this interface. Magnetic measurements show that the ferromagnetic property of the rubrene-LSMO interface improves by >230% compared to the pristine LSMO surface due to this proposed hybridization. Intentional disruption of the direct contact between LSMO and rubrene by insertion of a dielectric AlOx layer results in an observably decreased ferromagnetism. These experimental results demonstrate that by controlling the interface formation between organic semiconductor and half-metallic oxide thin films, it is possible to engineer the interface spin polarization properties. Results also confirm that by using PLD for consecutive growth of different layers, contamination-free interfaces can be obtained, and this finding is significant for the well-controlled and reproducible design of spin-polarized interfaces for future hybrid spintronics devices.