Emergent Topological Hall Effect in La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃/SrIrO₃ Heterostructures

Recently, perovskite oxide heterostructures have drawn great attention because multiple and complex coupling at the heterointerface may produce novel magnetic and electric phenomena that are not expected in homogeneous materials either in the bulk or in films. In this work, we report for the first time that an emergent giant topological Hall effect (THE), associated with a noncoplanar (NC) spin texture, can be induced in ferromagnetic (FM) La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ thin films in a wide temperature range of up to 200 K by constructing La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃/SrIrO₃ epitaxial heterostructures on (001) SrTiO₃ substrates. This THE is not observed in La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ single-layer films or La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃/SrTiO₃/SrIrO₃ trilayer heterostructures, indicating the relevance of the La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃/SrIrO₃ interface, where the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction due to strong spin–orbital coupling in SrIrO₃ may play a crucial role. The fictitious field associated with THE is independent of temperature in La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃/SrIrO₃ heterostructures, suggesting that the NC spin texture may be magnetic skyrmions. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using SrIrO₃ to generate novel magnetic and transport characteristics by interfacing with other correlated oxides, which might be useful to novel spintronic applications.