Thin film growth of 3D antiferromagnet NdFeO₃: spin hall magnetoresistance as a special probe for film-characterization

In past few years, insulating 3D antiferromagnets (AFM) that exhibit spontaneous net magnetic moment (weak ferromagnetism due to spin-canting) are gaining attention from the spintronics community. Notably, the net moment and Neel vector, both provide handles for manipulating spin transport via external magnetic field making these materials a promising choice for exploring novel antiferromagnetic spintronics devices. Recent spin transport studies on single crystalline 3D AFMs, DyFeO₃ and Ho_0.5Dy_0.5FeO₃ have highlighted usefulness of spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) as a probing for the magnetic anisotropy [1, 2].

Here, we have deposited 3D AFM, NdFeO₃ (NFO) thin films using pulsed LASER deposition method, on two substrates; LaAlO₃ (LAO) (001) and SrTiO₃ (STO) (001). NFO thin films can form crystal-domains with two different orientations (001) and (110). These films were characterized with the help of in-plane and out-of-plane XRD scans and measuring its magnetization by SQUID magnetometer. We observed that the strain in the film has influence on the magnetization as well as spin-reorientation transition temperature. Further, SMR is used as an effective tool for quantifying the crystal-domains in NFO.

[1] Hoogeboom et al PRB 103, 134406 (2021)

[2] Wagh et al PRB 106, 104426 (2022)