Au-Encapsulated Fe Nanorods in Oxide Matrix with Tunable Magneto-Optic Coupling Properties

Bruce Zhang; Matias Kalaswad; Bethany X Rutherford; Shikhar Misra; Zihao He; Haohan Wang; Zhimin Qi; Ashley E Wissel; Xiaoshan Xu; Haiyan Wang

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c14424

Au-Encapsulated Fe Nanorods in Oxide Matrix with Tunable Magneto-Optic Coupling Properties

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Nov 18;12(46):51827-51836. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c14424. Epub 2020 Nov 9.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
² School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, United States.

PMID: 33164483
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c14424

Abstract

Materials with magneto-optic coupling properties are highly coveted for their potential applications ranging from spintronics and optical switches to sensors. In this work, a new, three-phase Au-Fe-La_0.5Sr_0.5FeO₃ (LSFO) hybrid material grown in a vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) form has been demonstrated. This three-phase hybrid material combines the strong ferromagnetic properties of Fe and the strong plasmonic properties of Au and the dielectric nature of the LSFO matrix. More interestingly, the immiscible Au and Fe phases form Au-encapsulated Fe nanopillars, embedded in the LSFO matrix. Multifunctionalities including anisotropic optical dielectric properties, plasmonic properties, magnetic anisotropy, and room-temperature magneto-optic Kerr effect coupling are demonstrated. The single-step growth method to grow the immiscible two-metal nanostructures (i.e., Au and Fe) in the complex hybrid material form opens exciting new potential opportunities for future three-phase VAN systems with more versatile metal selections.

Keywords: magneto-plasmonic; nanostructures; self-assembled; three-phase hybrid material; tunability.