Abstract

The strong interplay of structural, electronic and magnetic degrees of freedom in correlated oxides are important for realizing novel multifunctional properties. In recent years the ionic degree of freedom has also been widely explored and the discovery of nanoionic memristive effects in oxide thin films has sparked off research activities towards a universal device involving terabit memories, logic operators, neuristors, and nanobatteries. In this work, we show that it is possible to nanoengineer ionic channels into films using vertical nanocomposite structures. The ionic channels act both as fast ionic diffusion channels and can also as electron trapping sites. The extent of ionic versus electronic conductivity can be tuned by appropriate selection of phases in the composites and the strain levels in the system. Furthermore, if magnetic phases are incorporated in the composites, an applied bias can be used to reversibly switch the magnetic properties via coupling to the ionic degrees of freedom.