Novel vertically aligned nanocomposite of Bi2WO6-Co3O4 with room-temperature multiferroic and anisotropic optical response
Leigang Li, Shikhar Misra, Xingyao Gao, Juncheng Liu, Han Wang, Jijie Huang, Bruce Zhang, Ping Lü, Haiyan Wang
Abstract
A new vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) structure based on two-dimensional (2D) layered oxides has been designed and self-assembled on both LaAlO3 (001) and SrTiO3 (001) substrates. The new VAN structure consists of epitaxially grown Co3O4 nanopillars embedded in the Bi2WO6 matrix with a unique 2D layered structure, as evidenced by the microstructural analysis. Physical property measurements show that the new Bi2WO6-Co3O4 VAN structure exhibits strong ferromagnetic and piezoelectric response at room temperature as well as anisotropic permittivity response. This work demonstrates a new approach in processing multifunctional VANs structure based on the layered oxide systems towards future nonlinear optics, ferromagnets, and multiferroics.