Ambipolar ferromagnetism by electrostatic doping of a manganite

作者:Zheng, L. M.; Wang, X. Renshaw*; Lu, W. M.*; Li, C. J.; Paudel, T. R.; Liu, Z. Q.; Huang, Z.; Zeng, S. W.; Han, Kun; Chen, Z. H.; Qiu, X. P.; Li, M. S.; Yang, Shize; Yang, B.; Chisholm, Matthew F.; Martin, L. W.; Pennycook, S. J.; Tsymbal, E. Y.; Coey, J. M. D.; Cao, W. W.
来源:Nature Communications, 2018, 9(1): 1897.
DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-04233-5

摘要

Complex-oxide materials exhibit physical properties that involve the interplay of charge and spin degrees of freedom. However, an ambipolar oxide that is able to exhibit both electron-doped and hole-doped ferromagnetism in the same material has proved elusive. Here we report ambipolar ferromagnetism in LaMnO3, with electron-hole asymmetry of the ferromagnetic order. Starting from an undoped atomically thin LaMnO3 film, we electrostatically dope the material with electrons or holes according to the polarity of a voltage applied across an ionic liquid gate. Magnetotransport characterization reveals that an increase of either electron-doping or hole-doping induced ferromagnetic order in this antiferromagnetic compound, and leads to an insulator-to-metal transition with colossal magnetoresistance showing electron-hole asymmetry. These findings are supported by density functional theory calculations, showing that strengthening of the inter-plane ferromagnetic exchange interaction is the origin of the ambipolar ferromagnetism. The result raises the prospect of exploiting ambipolar magnetic functionality in strongly correlated electron systems.