Structural, electrical and magnetic characterization of artificial ferromagnetic/superconducting (La(0.7)Ca(0.3)MnO(3)/YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-x)) heterostructures

Piano, S.
Santis, A. D.
Bobba, F.
Giubileo, F.
Longobardi, M.
Bartolomeo, A. D.
Polichetti, M.
Scarfato, A.
Zola, D.
Vecchione, A.
Cucolo, A. M.

Open link

Publication date

January 2009

DOI

10.1088/0953-8984/21/25/254205

Publisher

IOP Publishing

ISSN

0953-8984

Abstract

The fabrication and characterization of superconducting and ferromagnetic heterostructures is an open field due to the fundamental interest in the physics of the coexistence of these two competing orders and their possible applications in the spintronics industry. In this paper we present structural, electrical and magnetic characterization for the single La(0.7)Ca(0.3)MnO(3) (LCMO) thin layer, La(0.7)Ca(0.3)MnO(3)/YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7-x) (LCMO/YBCO) bilayers and the LCMO/YBCO/LCMO trilayers. In particular, we show a detailed magnetic characterization of the LCMO thin films by means of low temperature magnetic force microscopy. We discuss the different dynamics of the magnetic domains observed, depending on the substrate induced strain and on the...