Ab initio study of the intrinsic exchange bias at the SrRuO3/SrMnO3 interface...

In a recent publication [S. Dong et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 127201 (2009)], two (related) mechanisms were proposed to understand the intrinsic exchange bias present in oxides heterostructures involving G-type antiferromagnetic perovskites. The first mechanism is driven by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, which is a spin-orbit coupling effect. The second is induced by the ferroelectric polarization, and it is only active in heterostructures involving multiferroics. Using the SrRuO3/SrMnO3 superlattice as a model system, density- functional calculations are here performed to verify the two proposals. This proof-of-principle calculation provides convincing evidence that qualitatively supports both proposals.