Charge screening-controlled Verwey phase transition in Fe₃O₄/SrTiO₃heterostructure

Abstract

Despite intensive investigations into the Verwey phase transition of Fe₃O₄ over half a century, the mechanism of this phase transition remains controversial and needs further research. In this work, we build the Fe₃O₄/SrTiO₃ multiferroic heterostructure and investigate the temperature dependence of its saturation magnetization under various electric fields. It is found that the charge-screening effect not only influences the magnetization but also induces the temperature of the Verwey phase transition shifting ~13 K. It suggests that the Verwey phase transition has certain correlations with the electron distribution and the change of the number of minority spin electrons in the trimerons plays a dominant role in the temperature shift of the phase transition.