Chemically Driven Nanoscopic Magnetic Phase Separation at the SrTiO₃(001)/La_1‐<i>x</i>Sr_<i>x</i>CoO₃ Interface

Abstract

The degradation in magnetic properties in very thin film complex oxides is studied using SrTiO3(001)/La1-xSrxCoO3, providing unequivocal evidence for nanoscopic interfacial magnetic phase separation. Electron microscopy and spectroscopy reveal that this occurs due to inhomogeneity in local hole doping, driven by subtle, depthwise variations in the Sr and O stoichiometry. Simple thermodynamic and structural arguments for the origin of these variations are provided. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.