Highly efficient and fast modulation of magnetic coupling interaction in the SrCoO/LaCaMnO heterostructure.

Effective manipulation of magnetic properties in transition-metal oxides is one of the crucial issues for the application of materials. Up to now, most investigations have focused on electrolyte-based ionic control, which is limited by the slow speed. In this work, the interfacial coupling of the SrCoO/LaCaMnO (LCMO) bilayer is effectively modulated with fast response time. After being treated with diluted acetic acid, the bilayer changes from antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic (AFM/FM) coupling to FM/FM coupling and the Curie temperature is also effectively increased. Meanwhile, the corresponding electric transport properties are modulated within a very short time. Combined with the structure characterization and X-ray absorption measurements, we find that the top SrCoO layer is changed from the antiferromagnetic insulator to the ferromagnetic metal phase, which is attributed to the formation of the active oxygen species due to the reaction between the protons in the acid and the SrCoO layer. The bottom LCMO layer remains unchanged during this process. The response time of the bilayer with the acid treatment method is more than an order of magnitude faster than other methods. It is expected that this acid treatment method may open more possibilities for manipulating the magnetic and electric properties in oxide-based devices.