ULTIMATE-I
Published January 6, 2025 | Version v1
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Mechanism of oxygen reduction via chemical affinity in NiO/SiO2 interfaces irradiated with keV energy hydrogen and helium ions for heterostructure fabrication

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
  • 2. ROR icon Federico Santa María Technical University
  • 3. ROR icon Balseiro Institute
  • 4. ROR icon Universidad de Zaragoza

Description

Low-energy light ion beams are an essential resource in lithography for nanopatterning magnetic materials and interfaces due to their ability to modify the structure and properties of metamaterials. Here we create ferromagnetic/non-ferromagnetic heterostructures with a controlled layer thickness and nanometer-scale precision. For this, hydrogen ion (H+) irradiation is used to reduce the antiferromagnetic nickel oxide (NiO) layer into ferromagnetic Ni with lower fluence than in the case of helium ion (He+) irradiation. Our results indicate that H+chemical affinity with oxygen is the primary mechanism for efficient atom remotion, as opposed to He+ irradiation, where the chemical affinity for oxygen is negligible.

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Additional details

Funding

European Commission
ULTIMATE-I - ULtra ThIn MAgneto Thermal sEnsor-Ing 101007825

Software

Repository URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.17101