Marked enhancement of Néel temperature in strained YMnO ₃ thin films probed by femtosecond spectroscopy

Abstract

In this paper, the (001)-oriented hexagonal YMnO3 (h-YMO) thin films with various nominal strain states were deposited on MgO(100), MgO(111) and YSZ(111) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The ultrafast dynamics probed by wavelength-tunable femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy was performed to disclose the effects of the epitaxial strain on the electronic structure and associated magnetism. Analyses based on the measured transient-reflectivity-change (ΔR/R) curves revealed that while the magnitude of the on-site Mn d-d transition energy Edd(T) changes only slightly with the variation of the lattice constant ratio c/a, a marked shift in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) Néel temperature TN was observed and the direction of shift was dependent on the type of strain. The possible mechanism for the observed strain effect on the AFM ordering is discussed.