%0 Journal Article
%A Mi, Shao-Bo
%A Zhang, Ru-Yi
%A Lu, Lu
%A Liu, Ming
%A Wang, Hong
%A Jia, Chun-Lin
%T Atomic-scale structure and formation of antiphase boundaries in α-Li 0.5 Fe 2.5 O 4 thin films on MgAl 2 O 4 (001) substrates
%J Acta materialia
%V 127
%@ 1359-6454
%C Amsterdam [u.a.]
%I Elsevier Science
%M FZJ-2017-06700
%P 178 - 184
%D 2017
%X The occurrence of antiferromagnetic coupling at antiphase domain boundaries (APBs) of ferromagnetic materials holds potential applications for room-temperature spintronic devices. Here, we report formation mechanism and atomic-scale structure properties of APBs in α-Li0.5Fe2.5O4 thin films on MgAl2O4 (001) substrates investigated by means of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. The APBs in the α-Li0.5Fe2.5O4 films are either conservative or non-conservative. Across the APBs the oxygen sublattice in α-Li0.5Fe2.5O4 is maintained, while the stacking sequence of the cation sublattice is interrupted. The propagation of APBs is found to occur in a complex way within the ferromagnetic films, including the dissociation of APBs and the formation of kinks. Importantly, the density of APBs can be tuned by controlling the thickness of the α-Li0.5Fe2.5O4 films since the APBs bound interfacial dislocations contributing to film-substrate strain relaxation. Our results evidence that the nano-scale APBs in the α-Li0.5Fe2.5O4 films are controllable and stable, which could be promising candidates for applications in nano-spintronic devices.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000397362600017
%R 10.1016/j.actamat.2017.01.022
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/837939