Interfacial Properties of Organic Semiconductor–Inorganic Magnetic Oxide Hybrid Spintronic Systems Fabricated Using Pulsed Laser Deposition

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 7; no. 40; pp. 22228 - 22237
• Main Authors: Majumdar, Sayani, Grochowska, Katarzyna, Sawczak, Miroslaw, Śliwiński, Gerard, Huhtinen, Hannu, Dahl, Johnny, Tuominen, Marjukka, Laukkanen, Pekka, Majumdar, Himadri S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 14.10.2015
• Subjects: hybrid interface; organic spintronics; organic semiconductor thin films; magnetic properties; pulsed laser deposition
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b04840

We report fabrication of a hybrid organic semiconductor–inorganic complex oxide interface of rubrene and La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) for spintronic devices using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and investigate the interface structure and chemical bonding-dependent magnetic properties. Our results demonstrate that with proper control of growth parameters, thin films of organic semiconductor rubrene can be deposited without any damage to the molecular structure. Rubrene, a widely used organic semiconductor with high charge-carrier mobility and spin diffusion length, when grown as thin films on amorphous and crystalline substrates such as SiO2-glass, indium–tin oxide (ITO), and LSMO by PLD at room temperature and a laser fluence of 0.19 J/cm2, reveals amorphous structure. The Raman spectra verify the signatures of both Ag and Bg Raman active modes of rubrene molecules. X-ray reflectivity measurements indicate a well-defined interface formation between surface-treated LSMO and rubrene, whereas X-ray photoelectron spectra indicate the signature of hybridization of the electronic states at this interface. Magnetic measurements show that the ferromagnetic property of the rubrene–LSMO interface improves by >230% compared to the pristine LSMO surface due to this proposed hybridization. Intentional disruption of the direct contact between LSMO and rubrene by insertion of a dielectric AlO x layer results in an observably decreased ferromagnetism. These experimental results demonstrate that by controlling the interface formation between organic semiconductor and half-metallic oxide thin films, it is possible to engineer the interface spin polarization properties. Results also confirm that by using PLD for consecutive growth of different layers, contamination-free interfaces can be obtained, and this finding is significant for the well-controlled and reproducible design of spin-polarized interfaces for future hybrid spintronics devices.