Electronic and magnetic structure of SrIrO3/LaCoO3 superlattices

We have recently reported strong anomalous Hall effect in heterostructures of non-magnetic SrIrO3 (SIO) and ferromagnetic LaCoO3 (LCO) which demonstrated proximity-induced ferromagnetism in SIO. This has been demonstrated to arise from interfacial charge transfer from Ir to Co, which we propose to investigate further using detailed temperature dependent Ir L- edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) at beam line ID12 on a selection of high quality SIO/LCO heterostructures. Our aim is specifically to investigate the changes of the local electronic and magnetic structure of interfacial Ir ions, and in particular to check possible break-down of the pseudo-spin scenario. Additionally, we aim at gaining fresh insights at the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) – which is generally both of fundamental and technological interest - and its relation to oxygen octahedral rotations.