Ab initio investigation of electronic and magnetic properties of antiferromagnetic/ferroelectric LaMnO3/BaTiO3 interface

Abstract

We investigate the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of LaMnO _3 /BaTiO _3 heterostructure by means of ab initio calculations within the GGA+ U approach. We consider the heterostructure when ferroelectric polarization in the BaTiO _3 film is oriented perpendicular to the LaMnO _3 substrate. We present atom and spin-resolved density of states calculations for LaMnO _3 /BaTiO _3 heterostructure with different number of BaTiO _3 overlayers as well as layer-resolved spectra for the conducting heterostructure. We found that the LaMnO _3 /BaTiO _3 heterostructure becomes conducting with a significant spin polarization indicating that the interface becomes ferromagnetically ordered. The propose concept of a ferroelectrically controlled interface ferromagnetism that offers the possibility to design novel electronic devices.

Keywords

• ferromagnetism
• ferroelectrics
• band structure calculations