Oxide thin films and metal-oxide interfaces play a fundamental role in many chemical-physics processes and applications in material science. From a fundamental point of view, solid oxides constitute a benchmark for electronic structure theories, due the strong electron correlation effects occurring in these materials. In the context of FM-AF systems NiO-Fe interfaces play a major role thanks to their appealing properties such as the large conductivity gap (about 4 eV) and the high Néel temperature (T_N = 520 K) of NiO, and the low lattice mismatch between Fe and NiO.

We are presently studying the magnetic coupling properties of the Fe/NiO/Fe system using Spin Polarized Low Energy Electron Microscopy (SPLEEM), to address different experimental and theoretical issues on this subject: the predicted coupling for a Ferromagnet/Antiferromagnet interface is perpendicular, but there is clear experimental evidence for parallel coupling for the Fe/NiO system. The coupling for the reversed system NiO/Fe seems more critical, with the presence of both kind of coupling, depending on the defects at the interface.  Our goal is then to understand the basics mechanism driving this kind of coupling in the trilayer Fe/NiO/Fe, using SPLEEM and PEEM techniques.

See our publications list for more information.