Inverted shear-strain magnetoelastic coupling at the Fe/BaTiO3 interface from polarised x-ray imaging
The elastic degree of freedom is widely exploited to mediate magnetoelectric coupling between ferromagnetic films and ferroelectric substrates. For epitaxial Fe films grown on clean BaTiO<sub>3</sub> substrates, shear strain can determine the underlying magnetoelastic coupling. Here, we use PhotoEmission Electron Microscopy of ferroic Fe and BaTiO<sub>3</sub> domains, combined with micromagnetic simulations, to directly reveal an inverted interfacial magnetoelastic coupling in the low-dimensional limit. We show that the magnetocrystalline anisotropy competes with the epitaxial shear strain to align the local magnetization of ultrathin Fe films close to the local polarization direction of the ferroelectric BaTiO<sub>3</sub> in-plane domains. Poling the BaTiO<sub>3</sub> substrate creates c-domains with no shear strain contribution with the local magnetization rotated by ~45°. Tuning shear strain magnetoelastic contributions suggests new routes for designing magnetoelectric devices.
Authors
- N. D. Mathur (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9676-6227)
- S. A. Cavill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1359-4958)
- Xavier Moya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0276-1981)
- S. S. Dhesi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4966-0002)
- Hebatalla Elnaggar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4223-4054)
- M. Ghidini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1905-2455)
- Francesco Maccherozzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4074-2319)
- M. E. Vickers
- Anne Lamirand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3016-1377)
Institutions
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR)
- École Centrale de Lyon (FR)
- University of Parma (IT)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (FR)
- Diamond Light Source (GB)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie (FR)
- Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (FR)
- University of York (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-09-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62978-2
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Multiferroics and related materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.28
Funders
- Diamond Light Source
- Università degli Studi di Parma