Charge imbalance and magnetic properties at the Fe₃O ₄/BaTiO₃ interface

The electronic structure and physical properties at the interface in the superlattice Fe3 O4 / BaTiO3 were investigated by using the first-principles all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method. The loss of half metallicity of bulk Fe3 O4 in the multiferroic superlattice Fe3 O4 / BaTiO3 is related to the charge imbalance effect at the interface. The effect of strain strongly influences the Fe magnetic moments and the spin-polarized carriers at the interface. Oxygen vacancies are shown to recover the almost half-metallic ground state in the superlattice. The effects of the charge imbalance, the strain, and the oxygen vacancies at the interface in the superlattice Fe3 O4 / BaTiO3 can be applied to designing better multifunctional oxide-based systems.