Superconducting gap induced barrier enhancement in a BiFeO3-based heterostructure

• Main Authors: Lu, C. L., Wang, Y., You, L., Zhou, X., Peng, Haiyang, Xing, Guozhong, Chia, Elbert E. M., Panagopoulos, Christos, Chen, L., Liu, J. -M., Wang, J., Wu, Tom
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Magnetic materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/91935; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/6836
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We report the synthesis and characterization of an epitaxial heterostructure composed of multiferroic BiFeO3 and superconducting YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films grown on (001) SrTiO3. Both the superconductivity of YBa2Cu3O7−δ and the erroelectricity of BiFeO3 are retained in the heterostructure. Current density-electric field characteristics measured from 30 to 170 K suggest a Schottky-emission-like transport at the BiFeO3 /YBa2Cu3O7−δ interface. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the barrier height shows an anomalous enhancement at TC, indicating an intimate coupling between the multiferroic and the superconducting layers.