Nanoscale suppression of magnetization at atomically assembled manganite interfaces : XMCD and XRMS measurements

(LSMO)/SrTiO (STO) and a modified LSMO/LaMnO (LMO)/STO interface. Us-ing the technique of X-ray resonant magnetic scattering (XRMS), we can probe the interfaces ofcomplicated layered structures and quantitatively model depth-dependent magnetic profiles as afunction of distance from the interface. Comparisons of the average electronic and magnetic proper-ties at the interface are made independently using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-raymagnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The XAS and the XMCD demonstrate that the electronicand magnetic structure of the LMO layer at the modified interface is qualitatively equivalent tothe underlying LSMO film. From the temperature dependence of the XMCD, it is found that thenear surface magnetization for both interfaces falls off faster than the bulk. For all temperaturesin the range of 50K - 300K, the magnetic profiles for both systems always show a ferromagneticcomponent at the interface with a significantly suppressed magnetization that evolves to the bulkvalue over a length scale of ∼1.6 - 2.4 nm. The LSMO/LMO/STO interface shows a larger ferro-magnetic (FM) moment than the LSMO/STO interface, however the difference is only substantialat low temperature.I. INTRODUCTION