Tuning Magnetic Coupling in Sr2IrO4 Thin Films with Epitaxial Strain
Abstract
We report x-ray resonant magnetic scattering (XRMS) and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) studies of epitaxially-strained Sr2IrO4 thin films. The films were grown on SrTiO3 and (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2AlTaO6)0.7 substrates, under slight tensile and compressive strains, respectively. Although the films develop a magnetic structure reminiscent of bulk Sr2IrO4, the magnetic correlations are extremely anisotropic, with in-plane correlation lengths significantly longer than the out-of-plane correlation lengths. In addition, the compressive (tensile) strain serves to suppress (enhance) the magnetic ordering temperature TN, while raising (lowering) the energy of the zone boundary magnon. Quantum chemical calculations show that the tuning of magnetic energy scales can be understood in terms of strain-induced change in bond lengths.
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