Publications by authors named "Jacobo Santamaria"

Swirling spin textures, including topologically nontrivial states, such as skyrmions, chiral domain walls, and magnetic vortices, have garnered significant attention within the scientific community due to their appeal from both fundamental and applied points of view. However, their creation, controlled manipulation, and stability are typically constrained to certain systems with specific crystallographic symmetries, bulk or interface interactions, and/or a precise stacking sequence of materials. Recently, a new approach has shown potential for the imprint of magnetic radial vortices in soft ferromagnetic compounds making use of the stray field of YBaCuO superconducting microstructures in ferromagnet/superconductor (FM/SC) hybrids at temperatures below the superconducting transition temperature ().

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Memristors, a cornerstone for neuromorphic electronics, respond to the history of electrical stimuli by varying their electrical resistance across a continuum of states. Much effort has been recently devoted to developing an analogous response to optical excitation. Here we realize a novel tunnelling photo-memristor whose behaviour is bimodal: its resistance is determined by the dual electrical-optical history.

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Generation, manipulation, and sensing of magnetic domain walls are cornerstones in the design of efficient spintronic devices. Half-metals are amenable for this purpose as large low field magnetoresistance signals can be expected from spin accumulation at spin textures. Among half metals, La Sr MnO (LSMO) manganites are considered as promising candidates for their robust half-metallic ground state, Curie temperature above room temperature (T = 360 K, for x = 1/3), and chemical stability.

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We demonstrate the fabrication of field-effect transistors based on single-layer MoS and a thin layer of BaTiO (BTO) dielectric, isolated from its parent epitaxial template substrate. Thin BTO provides an ultrahigh-κ gate dielectric effectively screening Coulomb scattering centers. These devices show mobilities substantially larger than those obtained with standard SiO dielectrics and comparable with values obtained with hexagonal boron nitride, a dielectric employed for fabrication of high-performance two-dimensional (2D) based devices.

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Resistive switching effects offer new opportunities in the field of conventional memories as well as in the booming area of neuromorphic computing. Here the authors demonstrate memristive switching effects produced by a redox-driven oxygen exchange in tunnel junctions based on NdNiO , a strongly correlated electron system characterized by the presence of a metal-to-insulator transition (MIT). Strikingly, a strong interplay exists between the MIT and the redox mechanism, which on the one hand modifies the MIT itself, and on the other hand radically affects the tunnel resistance switching and the resistance states' lifetime.

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Ruddlesden-Popper oxides, (AO)(ABO), occupy a prominent place in the landscape of materials research because of their intriguing potential applications. Compositional modifications to the cation sublattices, A or B, have been explored in order to achieve enhanced functionalities. However, changes to the anionic sublattice have been much less explored.

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In transition-metal perovskites (ABO_{3}) most physical properties are tunable by structural parameters such as the rotation of the BO_{6} octahedra. Examples include the Néel temperature of orthoferrites, the conductivity of mixed-valence manganites, or the band gap of rare-earth scandates. Since oxides often hold large internal electric dipoles and can accommodate heavy elements, they also emerge as prime candidates to display Rashba spin-orbit coupling, through which charge and spin currents may be efficiently interconverted.

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When ferromagnetic films become ultrathin, key properties such as the Curie temperature and the saturation magnetization are usually depressed. This effect is thoroughly investigated in magnetic oxides such as half-metallic manganites, but much less in ferrimagnetic insulating perovskites such as rare-earth titanates RTiO , despite their appeal to design correlated 2D electron gases. Here, the magnetic properties of epitaxial DyTiO thin films are reported.

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The quasi 2D electron system (q2DES) that forms at the interface between LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO) has attracted much attention from the oxide electronics community. One of its hallmark features is the existence of a critical LAO thickness of 4 unit-cells (uc) for interfacial conductivity to emerge. Although electrostatic mechanisms have been proposed in the past to describe the existence of this critical thickness, the importance of chemical defects has been recently accentuated.

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The quasi 2D electron system (q2DES) that forms at the interface between LaAlO and SrTiO has attracted much attention from the oxide electronics community. One of its hallmark features is the existence of a critical LaAlO thickness of 4 unit-cells (uc) for interfacial conductivity to emerge. In this paper, the chemical, electronic, and transport properties of LaAlO /SrTiO samples capped with different metals grown in a system combining pulsed laser deposition, sputtering, and in situ X-ray photoemission spectroscopy are investigated.

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The peculiar features of domain walls observed in ferroelectrics make them promising active elements for next-generation non-volatile memories, logic gates and energy-harvesting devices. Although extensive research activity has been devoted recently to making full use of this technological potential, concrete realizations of working nanodevices exploiting these functional properties are yet to be demonstrated. Here, we fabricate a multiferroic tunnel junction based on ferromagnetic LaSrMnO electrodes separated by an ultrathin ferroelectric BaTiO tunnel barrier, where a head-to-head domain wall is constrained.

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Field-effect experiments on cuprates using ionic liquids have enabled the exploration of their rich phase diagrams [Leng X, et al. (2011) Phys Rev Lett 107(2):027001]. Conventional understanding of the electrostatic doping is in terms of modifications of the charge density to screen the electric field generated at the double layer.

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Electron energy loss spectroscopy in the scanning transmission electron microscope has long been used to perform elemental mapping but has not previously exhibited depth sensitivity. The key to depth resolution with optical sectioning is the transfer of sufficiently high lateral spatial frequencies. By performing spectrum imaging with atomic resolution we achieve nanometer scale depth resolution, enabling us to optically section an oxide heterostructure spectroscopically.

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Here we study the electronic properties of cuprate-manganite interfaces. By means of atomic resolution electron microscopy and spectroscopy, we produce a subnanometer scale map of the transition metal oxidation state profile across the interface between the high Tc superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-δ and the colossal magnetoresistance compound (La,Ca)MnO3. A net transfer of electrons from manganite to cuprate with a peculiar nonmonotonic charge profile is observed.

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In this work we study the interfaces between the Mott insulator LaMnO3 (LMO) and the band insulator SrTiO3 (STO) in epitaxially grown superlattices with different thickness ratios and different transport and magnetic behaviors. Using atomic resolution electron energy-loss spectral imaging, we analyze simultaneously the structural and chemical properties of these interfaces. We find changes in the oxygen octahedral tilts within the LaMnO3 layers when the thickness ratio between the manganite and the titanate layers is varied.

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Using X-ray absorption spectroscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy with atomic-scale spatial resolution, experimental evidence for charge transfer at the interface between the Mott insulators Sm2 CuO4 and LaFeO3 is obtained. As a consequence of the charge transfer, the Sm2 CuO4 is doped with electrons and thus epitaxial Sm2 CuO4 /LaFeO3 heterostructures become metallic.

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Reducing the operation temperature of solid oxide fuel cells is a major challenge towards their widespread use for power generation. This has triggered an intense materials research effort involving the search for novel electrolytes with higher ionic conductivity near room temperature. Two main directions are being currently followed: the use of doping strategies for the synthesis of new bulk materials and the implementation of nanotechnology routes for the fabrication of artificial nanostructures with improved properties.

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