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The proximity effects of the Pt layers on the magnetic properties of the ultrathin Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) films have been systematically investigated. A significant decrease in the saturation magnetization is observed after capping the Pt films on the YIG films, indicating that a strong interaction occurs between Pt and YIG. In contrast, the magnetic properties remain essentially unchanged for YIG capping with the Cu films. The X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements show that a selective charge transfer occurs from Pt to the tetrahedral site Fe of YIG, leading to a reduction of the magnetic moment of the interfacial YIG. Our findings provide important clues to further understanding the pure spin current transport at the Pt/YIG interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a near-field optical study of TiO2 nanodisks by fluorescence scanning near-field optical microscopy. The localization of light and the fluorescence enhancement near the dielectric structures are visualized with a lateral resolution of λ/5 using an Er/Yb-codoped fluorescent nanocrystal glued at the end of a sharp scanning tip. We observed that the intensity patterns strongly depend on the disk size, forming lobes for a diameter close to the wavelength and a single bright spot for smaller structures. Although the experiments were performed out of resonance, a maximum fluorescence enhancement of 2.3 was observed near 700 nm-wide disks. The evolution of the fluorescence pattern as a function of the disk size is in good agreement with the near-field maps calculated by the finite-difference time-domain method, in both two and three dimensions above the structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In strongly correlated oxides, heterostructures provide a powerful route to manipulate the charge, spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom to create distinctive functionalities. In this work, we have achieved atomically precise interface control in YBa2Cu3O7-x/La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (YBCO/LCMO) heterostructures and find a hidden effective doping. This mechanism is responsible for higher Tc in the sample with the MnO2-terminated interface than in that with the La0.7Ca0.3O-terminated interface. The MnO2-terminated sample also shows a larger magnetic moment of Mn together with a lower valence state. For more than a decade, the control of Tc in these heterostructures prior to this work has been solely via the variation of YBCO or LCMO thickness. This work hints at an alternative way of exploiting and exploring the interactions between superconductivity and magnetism in this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have performed x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements on Zn1-2xMnxCoxO nanoparticles. From the XAS results, it seems that the Mn and Co ions are in a mixed-valence (2+, 3+, and 4+) state and the relative concentrations of the high-valence (3+ and 4+) Mn and Co ions are higher in the surface region than in the deep core region. We suggest that this is a distinct trend of nanoparticle diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) unlike the case of DMS in film and bulk forms, where the transition-metal ions are expected to be 2+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors have investigated the magnetic properties of a GaN/Ga1-xMnxN (x=0.1) digital ferromagnetic heterostructure (DFH) showing ferromagnetic behavior using soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The Mn L2,3-edge XAS spectra were similar to those of Ga1-xMnxN random alloy thin films, indicating a substitutional doping of high concentration Mn into GaN. From the XMCD measurements, it was revealed that paramagnetic and ferromagnetic Mn atoms coexisted in the Ga1-xMnxN digital layers. Subtle differences were also found from the XMCD spectra between the electronic states of the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic Mn2+ ions. The ferromagnetic moment per Mn atom estimated from XMCD agreed well with that estimated from superconducting quantum interference device measurements, indicating that the ferromagnetic behavior of the GaN/Ga1-xMnxN DFH sample arises only from substitutional Mn2+ ions in the Ga1-xMnxN digital layers and not from ferromagnetic precipitates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the electronic and ferromagnetic properties of Zn1-xCoxO nanorods using x-ray absorption, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, and scanning photoelectron microscopy methods. The magnetic moment of Co ions in Zn1-xCoxO nanorods is found greatly reduced relative to that of the Co metal. The intensities of valence-band features near the valence-band maximum/Fermi level (EF) of ferromagnetic nanorods are substantially larger than those of weaker ferromagnetic nanorods, suggesting that the occupation of near-EF valence-band Co 3d states is important in determining the ferromagnetic behavior in Zn1-xCoxO nanorods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic and magnetic properties of Ag-doped Fe3O4 films were studied by x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES), extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements. A comparison between the Ag K-edge EXAFS Fourier transform spectra of Ag-doped Fe3O4 and the Ag metal shows that Ag atoms aggregate into Ag granules. The O K-edge and Ag L3-edge XANES spectra consistently indicate an electron transfer from the Fe3O4 host into Ag granules. The Fe L3,2-edge XMCD spectra and hysteresis measurements reveal that Ag granules reduce the average magnetic moment of Fe ions and the saturation magnetization of Fe3O4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and scanning photoelectron microscopy (SPEM) measurements have been performed for Zn1-xCoxO and Zn1-xMgxO to elucidate the effects of the doping of Co and Mg, which have very different electronegativities, on the electronic structures of ZnO nanorods. The intensities of O K-edge near-edge features in the XANES spectra of Zn1-xCoxO and Zn1-xMgxO nanorods are found to be lower than those of ZnO, which suggests that both Co and Mg substitutions of the Zn ions enhance the effective charge on the O ion. The valence-band SPEM measurements show that Mg doping does not increase the density of near-Fermi-level states, which implies that Mg doping will not improve field emission of ZnO nanorods. It is surprising to find that both Co and Mg substitutions of Zn increase the numbers of O 2p dominated valence-band states, despite that Co and Mg have larger and smaller electronegativities than that of Zn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the interlayer coupling in the quadrilayer consisting of IrMn/CoFe (bottom layer)/NiFeOx/CoFe (top layer). An in-plane perpendicular interlayer coupling is observed between CoFe layers at room temperature. An anisotropy transition from uniaxial to unidirectional in a perpendicular direction is observed around Tt=55 K. The nano-oxide layer NiFeOx shows no distinguishable ferromagnetic signal in the high-temperature (uniaxial) phase, while a strong signal appeared in the low-temperature (unidirectional) phase. A possible two-component scenario, in which the nano-oxide layer may contain both amorphous short-range antiferromagnetic domains and superparamagneitc clusters, is proposed to explain the phase transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic structure and magnetic properties of Al-doped Fe3O4 films at various Al concentrations were investigated by Al and O K-edge x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and Fe L3,2-edge magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) measurements. The O K-edge XANES spectra reveal that the intensity of O 2p–Fe 3d hybridized states decreases linearly as the Al concentration increases, suggesting that nonmagnetic Al substitution reduces couplings of the O 2p with Fe 3d orbitals. The Fe L3-edge MCD spectra show that the intensities of MCD features decrease as the Al concentration increases, which suggests that Al substitution reduces the magnetic moments of Fe ions. The Fe L3,2 XANES spectra suggest the absence of mixed valence states in agreement with previous x-ray resonance scattering measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]