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American Institute of Physics, Applied Physics Letters, 9(110), p. 092901

DOI: 10.1063/1.4977421

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Weak ferromagnetism and short range polar order in NaMnF$_3$ thin films

Journal article published in 2016 by Amit Kc, Pavel Borisov ORCID, Vladimir V. Shvartsman ORCID, David Lederman
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

The orthorhombically distorted perovskite NaMnF$_{3}$ has been predicted to become ferroelectric if an $a=c$ distortion of the bulk $Pnma$ structure is imposed. In order to test this prediction, NaMnF$_{3}$ thin films were grown on SrTiO$_{3}$ (100) single crystal substrates via molecular beam epitaxy. The best films were smooth and single phase with four different twin domains. In-plane magnetization measurements revealed the presence of antiferromagnetic ordering with weak ferromagnetism below the Néel temperature $T_N=66$ K. For the dielectric studies, NaMnF$_{3}$ films were grown on a 30 nm SrRuO$_{3}$ (100) layer used as a bottom electrode grown via pulsed laser deposition. The complex permittivity as a function of frequency indicated a strong Debye-like relaxation contribution characterized by a distribution of relaxation times. A power-law divergence of the characteristic relaxation time revealed an order-disorder phase transition at 8 K. The slow relaxation dynamics indicated the formation of super-dipoles (superparaelectric moments) that extend over several unit cells, similar to polar nanoregions of relaxor ferroelectrics. ; Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures